Meet Taim Al Falasi, the millionaire social media influencer from UAE

Gulf News

UAE influencer Taim Al Falasi talks to Gulf News about her passion and emergence as a social media star  Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3d8Go9m  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #socialmedia #influencer

Transcript

00:00People have been asking, especially my dad, who passed away one year ago,

00:04and he was like, why don't you keep your name Fatim?

00:07You're spoiled already, because Fatima is actually,

00:09they call her Fatim if they want to spoil her.

00:12And I insisted, no, I'll just keep a stage name of myself,

00:15which is Taim, and then he understood that.

00:20Actually, the journey started really in an early age.

00:24I was around eight, nine years old,

00:27and I remember looking into the mirror and having a script of my own show,

00:32where I'm the presenter, I'm the one who answers,

00:37I'm the fan of myself, and I'm the full package,

00:40just to entertain myself.

00:42And my mom saw that.

00:43And I remember my mom came to me,

00:45and there was an advertisement on the newspaper.

00:49They are looking for young presenters for a kid's show or something.

00:53And she said, oh my God, you should go there.

00:56But you should talk to your father.

00:58I said, no, I'm afraid, because at that time, eight years old, 1999,

01:05at that time, like a girl, a female figure,

01:08it's not something very familiar to see her on TV,

01:10maybe in the news, but not like the entertaining way.

01:14So she said, go, and I'll have your back.

01:17I said, okay.

01:18So I was looking, yeah, she's behind me,

01:20and I'm taking the newspaper to my dad, and he saw that.

01:23Then he actually threw the newspaper away.

01:25He said, no girls on TV.

01:27And like all my dreams been crashed on that.

01:31And I look at my back.

01:32I didn't see my mother.

01:37So it started that way.

01:3910 years later, the life changed.

01:42Everything changed.

01:43Without even asking my father, I just told him,

01:45I'm going to study media.

01:47And like, you know how time changes,

01:50and you don't know what happened, and everything's just normal.

01:54I studied, and I had that passion.

01:58And I said, now it's social media era.

02:00Why?

02:00I'm still stuck with TV and the traditional media.

02:04Let's create something where it's online.

02:05So I created my own magazine, which was online and printed.

02:13And it was a nice success, actually.

02:15After that, I said, okay, I did a magazine.

02:18We did this printed part.

02:19Let's do the radio.

02:21So I created the first online radio show in the UAE.

02:25And it was called On Air with Tame.

02:29I was influenced at that time with On Air with,

02:34what's his name?

02:35Ryan, I guess.

02:36So I had that name.

02:37And it was a really success and a hit,

02:39like 40K plays per episode.

02:42So give me this.

02:44So I said, okay, Tame, now we've been behind the scenes a lot.

02:48Let's just be in front of the camera.

02:51YouTube was there.

02:52So I opened my channel and it was really organic.

02:55I remember the first video on YouTube.

02:57The first vlog was just me going to Dubai mall.

03:00And it was phenomenal because in the Gulf,

03:03no girl had took the camera and recorded just a normal life.

03:08Just me going to the mall.

03:09To people, it was silly.

03:11It was pointless.

03:12I remember friends of my mom and my aunts were telling her,

03:18why is she showing us?

03:19We're not interested.

03:20People are not interested to see about her house or family.

03:25Who is she?

03:26So that people would be interested.

03:28I remember those words, but I ignored that

03:31because I have my mother on my side

03:33and I continued doing vlogs and content

03:36and it had elevated travel vlogs, event vlogs.

03:42And then it all came in and then it turned into an income,

03:46which was the interesting part as well.

03:48So Anas Bukhash, I remember one of the people

03:51who actually encouraged me and said, yes, stay.

03:54Now let's do contracts with people.

03:56Let's do so.

03:56He opened my eyes actually into making revenue

03:59and he didn't have a company by that time.

04:02It's just like a friend actually.

04:05And then started with one of the biggest contracts

04:08I've ever signed was Atsalat being an ambassador for two years.

04:13So with that was actually the biggest push for me.

04:16I have now eight restaurants because of social media.

04:23I can't explain.

04:24I can't tell you how important it is.

04:26I can't tell you figures.

04:27I can't tell you numbers because this explains this.

04:32It's just logic.

04:35We've been always struggling with people underestimating bloggers.

04:41Let's not even just say influencers

04:42because a person with an influence is something huge.

04:45A bad or good.

04:47But let's say just the basic thing of social media, a blogger.

04:50They underestimate a blogger.

04:52Okay, we work from, for example, 8 a.m. till 3 or 4

04:56or maybe at banks until 7 p.m. to get the one coverage

05:02for a salary for a whole month for someone,

05:05one coverage for one hour of an influencer

05:07who went to a perfume shop, for example.

05:10So they did nothing.

05:11They just raised their phones.

05:12That's, I'm telling you how people actually think about it

05:15and I actually think about it that way because it makes sense, yeah.

05:19For just one hour and they get the amount that we get

05:22sitting on our desks for eight, nine hours.

05:25And they underestimate that actually mentally

05:30you have to always be prepared,

05:31which is this is a whole different thing

05:33because I'm not always happy.

05:35I'm not always, I don't always want to,

05:38if I see someone on the street and they,

05:40oh team, maybe sometimes I'm in a bad mood

05:42to actually interact even with people.

05:45So mentally and health-wise, we're not always there.

05:49So that's a thing.

05:50It's not like, I'm not like a clown

05:52who would always be entertaining people and stuff like that.

05:56So that's on mental health and stress and stuff like that.

06:00But other than that, editing, being able,

06:06because I could go to the perfume shop for an hour,

06:10talk about it and no one would go there.

06:12I can't do that.

06:13But if I go there with determination,

06:17with confidence, with knowing how to sell that perfume

06:22and I know what to put first and what to put last

06:24and I script it inside my mind

06:27and I tell them, no, let's do it that way.

06:29So all of this effort, yes, it's an hour,

06:32but I've scripted, I've done my job

06:34so that they could call me again and tell me, come.

06:36Because I don't want to just be visiting places,

06:38having money from everywhere

06:41and then I have a bad reputation of just being there and that.

06:44No, I make sure that I have that quality of content.

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