If you don't exist online, you don't exist. It's 2025. Social media is one of the most important things for people and for their businesses. If you are an influencer, this episode is for you. And if you're not, you have to learn the impact of influencer media nowadays. In this episode, we're going to be discussing everything that the influencer need to know about their business and the problems that they might face and how to protect themselves. If you're an influencer, you have to watch this episode. And if you're not, you should watch it to understand what's going on. Our guest for today is an influencer himself, but as well, he's a lawyer. He is the most famous influencer lawyer in the UAE at the moment. my friend, my guest Ahmed Oda. He is the managing partner of MIO. He is a public figure and an influencer and I just learned today that he is going to start another vertical on his social media journey. Good morning and thank you very much Ahmed for coming. Good morning Ahmed. Thank you so much for having me today. I started becoming more active on Instagram, posting a lot lot more sort of life experience content, wisdom, things that you should or should not be doing about in business. Yes, I I noticed your personal Instagram page is all Do you know what it is? I no longer want to be pigeonhold as a lawyer. I think this sort of change of clothing is like sort of my rebellious attitude. Like, okay, I love the colors. Thank you. I have to say uh I'm thinking I'm thinking, you know what, man? Um, I I'm not done being a lawyer. I love being a lawyer. I think it's the value that I bring to society and to to clients as a lawyer is is phenomenal. Uh, but I don't want to be uh identified as one by people. I don't want people to be like, "Oh, Ahmed the lawyer, right?" Uh, no, I'm we're human beings at the end of the day. You know, that's how 50 60% of the people who know me identify us as lawyers. Lawyer. Yeah. That's how they save our numbers on the and I think after 20 years or so or so I think the novelty uh of being a lawyer is uh has started to wade sort of to faint at the moment and look it's nice um and and the industry gives back a lot as well. you have a a great community, but I think there's there's much more to explore out there. And if I have the passion for it, I'll do it. And I do have the passion for relationship dynamics, man. I think lawyers uh are more relationship focused than anybody else cuz we get involved in every aspect of a client's life. Like we we kind of understand emotional triggers and everything. So, we're we're actually more uh equipped to talk about relationships and even psychologists. I'll see how let's see how it works. That's actually very true. I mean, and sometimes I realize that I have to understand very well psychology so I can manage the emotions, my personal emotions as well because sometimes I get too involved with the client or in the in in the case. But I also have to understand the emotions of my client so I can advise them correctly because sometimes they come to me and say, "I don't care about money. I don't care about reputation. and I just want to file a case and I want to take them all away, you know, and it hurt. It hurt financially and it hurt emotionally and getting stressed with the litigation is a tough call and sometimes they just jump into it for no reason. So, I need to understand the emotional part as well to be able to manage uh my work. So, that's what's new with me. I've uh changed up my style and sort of a bit and I hope this new Instagram page is going to be something uh uh sort of useful for everybody. That's really cool. It's a bit of law and a bit of social dynamics. You focus now on Instagram than Tik Tok or you're still working on both? I'm doing both. Okay. Tik Tok is simply legal education and it's for the masses. It's typically labor law, rental disputes, um maybe a bit of uh divorce and marriage, but that's that's pretty much it. That's most of it, right? Because most people on Tik Tok are not business owners. They don't they don't have sort of like the sort of big business struggles uh that uh that people on Instagram might have. So on Instagram, I I focus on a lot more business related uh content. Is that what you noticed? Yes, of course. I mean, it's every platform has a different audience and a different kind of um attention. I I'm I'm active on LinkedIn and on Instagram and on Instagram I have two uh two accounts like the Monday legal podcast and I have my personal one and uh the attention and the type of questions because very often I post both I mean someone is posting on Monday legal social media team but on my personal account I post myself and the questions and the attention and the dynamics are completely different here and there on LinkedIn. then is completely different and it's uh different questions and different interactions in general. So, you've been doing this now for over a year, right? It's been almost and um do you feel do you feel like you're an influencer? Oh, that's a big question. Um yes and no. Yes, for young lawyers because these are the most who actually um chase me with questions and messages and some of them find my number online or uh get my email and they ask for advisers are very personal to them and to their career and to what to do and how to address this and that. And even with Emirates Legal Network, a lot of the young members, they come to me for advice from time to time. And in in this regard, I feel like I do influence a few people. Also, my colleagues who are lawyers from Mrs. Network who I work with them on managing the community. I imagine that my strategy of managing the community and so on influence their decisions a few uh times. very small, very niche community, but I do have a little bit of influence. But on the bigger uh scale, when you say influencer uh to the public, I I don't think so. My my impact is not that uh big for the legal community. I think I do have a small influence. Well, that's probably better because the legal community is uh more appreciative of the content that you create. Yes. Yes. That's what I noticed. Absolutely. Myself included when I, you know, watch your podcast episodes. Uh I learn a lot even as a lawyer. Habibi, we all learn from you with all your uh knowledge that you're showering us with. I want to ask you specifically on that. Um you are an influencer not like me. I'm a I'm I'm very focused on a niche audience which are the legal community. you influence the public because you post um content that is interesting for a lot of people. How did it change your life being an influencer before and after? Uh there's a lot of recognition. A lot of people recognize me when I sort of go anywhere. Uh which is very nice to have. It's a it's it's good to sort of build that sort of brand that you're helping people. I love it when people come to me and in silence they come to me and saying, "Hey, uh, you really helped me. Uh, I've taken some of the advice that you shared online and it really changed my life around whatever it is with my employer, with my lifestyle, whatever it is." And that's that makes me really happy that uh, you know, I actually was able to change uh, people's thinking and you know, make them improve their lives somewhat. Uh, business-wise, not so much. I think in in this country, people still like to receive a lot of value, but they don't give uh back, which is okay. I mean, this is the the name of the game here. You you've realized that they just like to take take. It's okay. Um, but aside from uh the recognition, my life hasn't changed so much. The business community, of course, is a there's a bit of an understanding that yes, I'm putting content out there. Um uh but aside from that, yeah, um being an influencer is is good here. It's it helps. It helps at least, you know, opening doors. You don't have to sell yourself as much. Yeah. Um because you put because you put a lot of content there. Um the problem with that though is that like I said earlier, you're pigeonholed. Now you're a lawyer that gives content uh education about legal. If you deviate from that or if I want to deviate from that and talk about something else like living like giving even life advice uh or relationship advice a lot of people might not like it and they'll drop off the plat the sort of the page. So I might need to like what I said separate separate identity uh in that regard which is okay. Do you have influencer clients? Yes I do. Some of them come back to you with uh the sort of problems that happen with influencers that is specifically uh face them right. Yeah. Yeah. So influencers know influencers right especially if you're in a particular space. So if you're in the lifestyle then you know a lot of people in lifestyle right and so on. And you'll notice that a lot of influencers in lifestyle they kind of meet and do collabs uh together. Um for me, yeah, I do have some of these uh influencers come to me because they've seen me online as well and uh they have issues. Yeah, they have a lot of issues and difficulties with uh you know doing collaborations with brands and companies. So you have clients who are influencers and often they have problems when they deal with brands or with marketing agency companies who are doing business with them. what sort of main problem that faced the influencers from a legal perspective. So before we talk about the legalities of it, I actually want to sort of focus on what an influencer is in Dubai and uh and what do they actually do? Uh what I realize is in Dubai a lot of people self-proclaim as influencers just because you're going out and you're taking videos of restaurants and bars and you're giving your opinion on it and stuff. Uh doesn't necessarily make you an influencer, right? or if you have a certain amount of following or if you even bought your followers uh or if you just just, you know, a beautiful girl, right, and you're sort of, you know, putting on nice clothes and stuff and that's it. It's it's not exactly uh clearcut that if you are an influencer or not. and brands depending on the type of company that is looking for the profile of the influencer. They might not appreciate you as um as the kind of target uh influencer that they're looking to promote their brand uh product or service with. And with that comes a lot of vagueness when it comes to interactions. But typically when you are an influencer, you need to have something called a rate card. I have a rate card. If a company wants to reach out to me to promote a brand, I send them my rate card. I tell them this is exactly how much I charge per post, per story, whatever. And uh the brand then come the company comes back to me and they were like okay all right where we agree to these terms and they'll send a contract over. The legalities come where um brands are typically unclear with uh their deliverables exactly what it is that they want from you and how they're going to pay you. So let's say they'll pay you only on completion and uh only on a sale of a certain number of items or if the video reaches a certain amount of viewerships. The problem with that is that companies have no obligations to share with the influencer any analytics of the performance of the video that takes place on the company's uh profile. Um, fair enough. It's their page. They own it. So, you as the influencer, you can't do that unless it's on your page. And what happens then is that they start playing this sort of uh push and pull game. Oh, we're going to withhold the fees from you because you didn't that the post didn't perform as well or you weren't wearing the type of uh makeup or the lighting wasn't good, the the camera quality. They can come up with any reason and it depends on the relationship that the company has with the influencer if they're a they have a tight bond or is the marketer in the company just looking at it as a transaction and nothing else. They don't care about the relationship that they have with the influencer. Not like they're going to get involved in a sort of a long-term engagement. And I see that a lot in the US and the UK. I find that the same influencers, especially on YouTube, will be promoting the same brands like like you're looking at uh BetterHelp for example or uh a VPN company, you'll see that the same video, the same brand is being promoted over and over again with multiple videos and that associates the brand with the influencer. In UAE, it's not like that. It's only usually a onetime thing. Three stories, a couple of posts, and that's that. That's what they call a collaboration for a specific uh I don't know a specific project. So they they buy I don't know few minutes or free posts or few stories and and so on and they pay them by the by the job for example. Yeah. Right. They're not exclusive brand ambassadors in that sense. I mean is there usual contracts? I think any relationship as a lawyer myself, I think any transactional relationship between two parties should have a contract. Yes. And the contract needs to be reviewed not by the influencer, by somebody else. It doesn't have to be a lawyer. Of course, I I I can't uh uh imagine that every influencer has their own lawyer. But um if the contract is large enough, it's it's a good idea. But at the very minimum, the influencer should have their own agency or manager to to review the terms and conditions because you don't want to add any emotional element to the uh the contract as the as the person who's going to execute and operate the the terms and conditions. You have to be sort of removed uh from the contract a little bit. Yeah. I mean this this shows how important is a written document when we talk about the appreciation because before we get into whatever is the deal to collaborate together me putting down 1 2 3 4 these are the things that I'm expecting from you these are the KPIs based on this job that's how you pay me and that's when you pay me and that's how much you pay me and that's it doesn't have to be a contract of 10 pages it can be a simple document one pager that regulates the relationship between both of us. Why since we have so much of collaborations happening and social media becoming so important in our life, why a lot of influencers are lacking behind when it comes to contracts. I think the the biggest point is they're just too scared to let the the brand go. they don't want the company to not work with them. So they'll say you know what we'll do whatever it is that you want us to do at the rate that you believe is uh is appropriate just so that we can say that hey we we started working with so and so brand and the larger the brand uh the more influence or or power that they have over the influencer. That's the name of the game. And uh then one of my influencers said to me that a lot of these big brands, they treat influencers like a cheap date. It means that like as if if a guy takes a girl out for coffee just so that he can get a feeler as to whether you know she's a good fit for him, right? That explains the dates. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That explains as well the one-off deals like let's do a three stories and see how that works. Exactly. Yeah. And it's it's not fair to the influencer because a lot of work goes into building the influencers's page and for them to actually put the content out there and the content will be there forever. So it may not perform today but maybe a month or six months down the line. Yeah, that that thing about the appreciation and the KPIs is very important and I think having a one pager contract would uh would make sense and I think maybe we need to also speak to the brands and to whoever is representing these brands to educate them that um having a written written agreement with the influencer is not basically limiting what you can or you cannot do. to just reduce the friction and the problems that might happen with the influencers in the market. Definitely finding the right influencer is key and getting into a very clear understanding of the terms and conditions between the company and the and the influencer. Uh that needs to be there because if if both parties are not getting what they want out of this relationship, it's not going to work long term at all. And even if it works short term, it might leave a bitter taste uh aftertaste with uh with either party and they may say, you know what, we don't want to work with you again. Uh maybe payments were delayed. Uh perhaps the video had to be reshot like multiple times which took a lot of the time from the influencer. It could be a multitude of factors that might not allow the relationship to continue just because the contract was not done properly. Yeah. There's also one thing I mean one of my friends is a food blogger and she's uh very well known in the UAE and she complained a lot about not the brands not the the main client for her it complains about the middleman the marketing agency or the PR agency that reach out to her to ask her to do the services for this hotel or this uh restaurant and so on and I always ask her So your relationship is sour with the brand because of the middleman. He says, "Yes, I'm sure the brand has nothing to do with it. They are okay. That my problem is with the middleman or the middle company who usually manage the relationship between us and they get us the the the business deals as well. They manage the funds uh the payments." Yeah. So the PR agency is looking at this as a numbers game only. 100%. Right. Yes. how much we you charge and how much uh are we going to get out of this and they're probably working with multiple influencers and there they're pitting them against each other to see uh who can give the best value. I think also influencers do the same. They reach out to 10 marketing agencies or PR agencies to to uh to work with. The PR agencies are having their pool of clients, another pool of influencers, and I think it takes away the human part of the relationship between a brand and an influencer because we like it whether we like it or not. That's the new trend is it's not only uh actors and sportsmen who are influencers in in the in this market of today. Digital and social media influencers are very important for brands. If I were an influencer and a PR agency reached out to me, I would not speak to them directly. I will give away a lot of my power by talking talking to them directly. I will either give it to my manager or my PR agency to talk to them because if they have direct access to me that means they can you know they can sway a lot of decisions in their favor and I wouldn't want that. Yeah. Yeah, they will always have the upper hand over you where because they bring you the business. They handle the the finances and they can manipulate kind of the success of the influencer whether they like the work or they don't like the work or the KPI is met or not. Uh, I heard a few cases where the brand is super happy with the campaign and the work. The influencer is super happy with the collaboration, but the middleman is still creating trouble between them and moving wrong information between the brand and the influencer. And I think this all can be reduced or eliminated by writing agreements and having it clear what are the KPIs, what are the expectations and if both are met, how do I get paid in advance in sequence or at the end when when things are clear, I think it eliminates all the problems that might come with it. Yeah, I think a lot of posts are timesensitive. when a company reaches out to an influencer, they need a post to be done usually within a few days time because there's an event coming up and uh they they want that sort of post to to hit at the same time. So what what every influencer needs is a standard contract ready along with the rate card. So they'll send the rate card. If the rate card is approved, then the default contract is uh sent shortly thereafter so that the sort of time duration for them to agree on the terms is uh reduced. That's the ideal scenario I think. What about you? Well, I I think a lot of influencers understand that but we have a even a bigger problem is that the AI is helping a lot of people drafting contracts right now. So I've seen couple of contracts for influencers uh which is AI generated is not bad at all. It's actually good. It's nice but it has no connection to the UAE. The contract is drafted in a way that works perfectly in the US for example US. Exactly. But you will see jurisdiction Dallas. Thank you. Yes. and you'll see a company in Dubai, an influencer who lives in Dubai and choosing jurisdiction of London. It's like wow, bravo. What is this? Why did you do that? It's like, yeah, I got it from my friend who lives in UK. And then I realized that this friend who lives in UK is chat, you know, he doesn't even live in UK, but it's just complete lie. they just uh go to the AI generate the uh the the contract and they feel like looks good and sophisticated enough and nice and let's sign it. I don't mind reviewing AI generated contracts but you have to add a human element to it otherwise it may not suit you. Yeah. And I think when when we review contracts as well, I mean we draft contracts all the time and sometimes we bring the litigation team to have a look at the terms of the contract to understand certain clauses that are very important. How would the court react to uh a clause like this when it comes in front of a judge and then they tell us okay I have this and this uh court president based on uh previous court hearings in the UAE that prove that this cont this clause for example is is invalid whether it's Putin signed or not or this clause is very powerful and it will be looked at in court in this sense A lot of people over do a lot of oversightes when they come to uh to contracts and jurisdiction makes a big difference. If this contract template you got it from your friend in the US or your friend in Switzerland or your friend in Egypt, it makes a big difference when it comes to litigation. Have you seen a lot of litigation with influencers? Not a lot. Not many. Yeah. because the the ticket sizes of the uh influencer contracts is not that big. Yeah, that's a big problem. So, you would not want you would not know whether influencers actually got paid or not because it never reaches to a level where they go to a lawyer uh and they have the lawyer has to send a legal notice. uh a couple of things I'd like to share is that in such agreements between the influencer and the company what needs to happen is that there has to be very clear definition of what constitutes a breach of the obligations for each uh of the parties because that would then trigger termination penalty and so on. If you don't know where the breach lies, then what happens is the company is then going to try to push the envelope as much as they can to get you to work as much as possible. Uh because then they'll say, well, you know, the obligations are are uh uh a bit open and not very clear. So, you have to work otherwise we're not going to pay you. So, uh the breach provisions are very very important I find. And also, if you're an influencer, if I am an influencer and I want to say, "All right, this is going to be my full-time job. That's it. I'm not going to do anything else. I'll set up a company. I'll get it that registered and I'll send these contracts with invoices and follow-ups and everything just like I would a trading company or anything. It is a business. It is a complete business. They have to treat it like that. What I lack, I mean, who's the problem here? Are the influencers are the problem or the brands?" Because the brands they have their team, they have the lawyers, they have their marketing, they they used to do contracts all the time. Yeah. Marketing agencies and PR agencies the same. They have their setup, they have the finance team, they have contracts team, they have everything. Are the influencers the problem? I'll put 70% of the blame on the influencers because the influencer is the decision maker at the end of the day. So the most of the power to decide how the contract will be steered is in their hands. Yes, the marketing team in the company's side is going to say, "Well, this is the way we run things around here." Uh, take it or leave it, all these sort of uh negotiation uh negotiation powers that they're going to try to uh, you know, strongarm the influencer. But you have to stay your ground. You have to know exactly what you're worth and how you're going to deal with the companies. If you're going to let the each company decide how uh the relationship is being uh driven, it's going to drive you mad. If you have 10 companies that you work with and each company has its own way of uh of dealing with you, it's not going to be a sustainable business model being an influencer. Let me for for all the influencers out there, let me give you a tip that helps legally and also has a psychological uh factor. If you stand your grounds, your value is kept and they anyways are going to work with you. If you are a yes man and everything they tell you, you will just run to them and do what they like or uh work at their own at the at the the pace they like to to work on. Your value deteriorates automatically. You know, I know you want to work with the big brands and this is an amazing chance for you. Fantastic. But if if they come to you and if you have that chance, it means that you are valuable enough and your content is great. Give yourself a chance. Stand your grounds. Prepare a contract. Prepare a rate card. Speak to them very firmly. This is how I do business. You take it or leave it. Maybe they don't take it now, but they will take it later. So, continue doing your content. continue working hard. And if one out of 10 don't value your content and don't want to work with you on a contract, leave it. They will come back. Never diminish from your own value. Brands will try to do that. They'll try to make it look like you're not as valuable as uh as you are in the market, but don't let them to get to your head. But preparing a contract for an influencer could be expensive, right? A little bit. It depends. The influencer could also do a barter arrangement with a lawyer. Who knows? Good point. Yes, you can do that. One of the things that you mentioned is very important. Influencers will never know the accurate analytics of how successful their campaign went. They will never know if their work actually created sales or not. it's not from the uh the page because this is confidential information for the brand or the company. Maybe the uh PR agency will have access to the analytics but they will not have access to the sales. How can the influencer protect themsel from being unpaid based on poor performance of a campaign? That's a very good question. I think in the contract you could mention that the fee is not contingent on a particular outcome and it's not uh uh going to be dependent on any performance uh of the post. If the post reaches 100 views or a million views, that's none of your concern. All you do as an influencer is that you deliver the service and that's that and you get paid for it in advance. Also, you can add a no guarantee clause and that clause will specify that you don't guarantee any outcome uh based off the uh the post or the service that you deliver. Most companies might not be happy with that, but what it genuinely or what it implies is that as an influencer, you're not uh responsible for what the algorithm decides whether the post is doing well or not, which is fair. Yeah. because I think it's it's really unfair for the influencer to carry the weight of the success of a campaign because just reaching out to them and getting them into the campaign, his job is done. How can he know? Maybe the tags are not done well. Maybe the quality of the camera is not okay. Maybe the lighting. Maybe uh there's so many elements. Maybe the the the posting time was done wrongly by the social media manager. The influencer has no control on that. Yeah. Maybe they didn't they didn't allocate the right uh advertising budget uh for the post. Exactly. The media buying or Yes. Or they didn't allocate the right demographic for the post. So uh companies will try to strong strongarm the influencer into uh thinking that they didn't do a good job in so many ways. You see we as lawyers are on your side. Of course we will take your money for preparing that contract. But we're on your side. We understand how the game is played and we understand how can we protect you. Otherwise we'll work for the brands because they have more money to spend on lawyers. No, I'm just kidding. Actually, yes. But we love you too. I mean, we have an influencer here, so he he feels for you guys hardly. Yes. Yes. Let let's steer a little bit away from the social media and from the influencers. And I think one of the things when we talk about the same word influence, a lot of brands or a lot of companies rely a lot on reviews and their image online. And that's why every single commercial entity and maybe government entity even they have social media accounts and they have a website and they have the digital presence. And one of the most controversial issues that happen is reviews. when you go to a restaurant and you leave a bad review for this restaurant on Google or you trash them by a very bad post uh on Instagram story or even record what happened live to try to show a bad image for a commercial entity in general. this influence sales directly and this influence the image of the commercial entity and it has legal implications. I think uh you know that I did a video of about this that went viral on love in Dubai as well. Yes. I said if you want to post a negative Google review then uh my suggestion is you travel outside the UAE, post all the negative reviews that you want but never come back. Yes. And it's true because in this country the threshold for a negative review turning into a crime has become very very thin. So at any moment uh if the review is on and the restaurant or the whatever establishment finds that the review is uh uh criminally offensive then they can easily register the complaint against you. The problem is not that there's a something wrong with the review but at any time they can open a criminal complaint. Now, that current complaint uh could be that they that there's no merit to it. But what will generally happen is that you'll be traveling uh or you'll have to, you know, do some kind of government uh work and then you'll find that there's a a travel ban uh issued against you and then you have to go to the police and it's a headache. That's what I'm saying. Just save yourself the headache and just don't mention it. Don't mention over Google. Just tell your friends about your negative experience and so be your own influencer in your own circle. Talk about the uh bad experience you had with this company on to to to your network. You don't have to take it online because what goes online stays online forever. Agreed. I have um a story to tell here. One of my friends, he was uh renting a car from one of the very famous companies in the UAE. What he made is that he very politely wrote a review and before taking it online, he went to Google Chat and he told Chhatub, "This is my review. Please make sure it's super polite and it does not put me in any legal trouble. Chad TBT gave him a draft. He looked at it. He liked it and he posted in Google review. Three days and he got a legal notice. Oh my god. Three days. Unbelievable. A legal notice. The company is so used to bad reviews that they have a lawyer on retainer just to send legal notices to everybody. So we understand that also some companies misuse the power of the law and their right to open a claim against uh anybody for uh defamation. and they uh throw legal notices left and right and it's up to the court. So what exactly what Ahmed said, you may be putting a very fair review, a very polite one, but at the same time you're vulnerable to a legal case that might stay in court for 2 three months and during this two three months in you're stuck. You're stuck. Yeah. If it worth it, go ahead. Look, I get the whole sort of western uh of uh thinking over this saying that there is no free freedom of speech here. I mean, where is is there's no more freedom of speech anywhere in the world. actually. Yes. Uh the my side of it is that as a business owner, it is quite unfair to put a negative review on an establishment uh that you know has spent so much money getting set up and and running its operations here in this country. I mean you know in restaurants here like the average uh capital required for setting up a restaurant is like what 5 million plus. It's a lot of money to set up and operate a an establishment here just so that some uh a random uh person had a a negative or their negative personal experience to it uh could uh potentially ruin the brand's reputation. It's a bit unfair in my experience and the digital image is very important that this significant reliance on the digital uh media in general and the Google reviews for example is one of the things that everybody look at and if you have uh on as a negative average on on the Google reviews that really stops your algorithm from showing your restaurant. So automatically reduce your profitability and people to find you. So your review can be a very polite one but it can be a one-star and automatically even the polite review will reduce the profitability of this business. So please take care, think twice before you do this negative legal review. Not just because it might put you in trouble legally because sometimes it's really unfair because the effect of it can be much more worse on the business than your experience. I do have an example to please. Yes, share. Yes, tell us. Okay. So, shortly after I posted the video, uh I had a couple that approached me. They came to the office and uh they told me that they uh had a wedding recently. It was uh a great wedding. I forgot which hotel but um they recruited the sort of wedding photography uh company and uh that company was supposed to be like really good. They came highly recommended and they did such a horrible job, a really really bad job and so much so to the point that that wedding photography company was holding the u the the videos and the and the pictures of the wedding hostage. uh unless and until they get paid. So during that time uh where they were sort of negotiating the you know the the the release of the footage uh the couple posted a Google review on the companies and and what their experience was like and I read the review it was very technical I mean they laid out from A to Z a historical uh uh you know discuss description of what happened uh from the day that they uh hired the company all the way to the And uh you know as a sort of just an average guy looking at this I mean wow this was a a genuine review from the heart it was very emotionally traumatic because obviously it was a wedding and right uh and a lot of money was paid but uh still they were both uh stopped at the airport when they were traveling for their honeymoon. My god and uh because of this uh Google review. Yeah. You know I I do this a lot. I I um I get so angry sometimes or so emotional with uh business and um I write a very very bad email. I just don't press send. I put all my energy into that email t my keyboard suffers when I'm likeum p and just I put it on a draft and I say 24 hours I'll sleep. I wake up and I will send this email. 99% of the times I do not send that email. That's the best thing you can do. One thing I learned many, many years ago is never send emails when you're angry. Yeah. What goes online stays online forever. Please remember that. Uh let's talk a little bit about the freelancers because a lot of them have small jobs tiny like 5,000 10,000 15,000 dirham and they don't get paid but because the amount is too small they don't think it is um economically smart to uh to go to a lawyer because lawyer will charge them their the fees and it it might not happen and they they don't want to go with legal but it end up that a freelancer can lose 100 200,000 dirhams a year out of uh small jobs here and there. Is there a way to help these guys um collect with when it comes to freelance work? You have to understand the psychology of what it's like to work with these companies. You have companies that are willing to pay but they said uh we'll we'll delay it because it's a small amount for them even though it's not a small amount for the freelancer. And then you have companies that are unwilling to pay because they feel like the job has not been done properly. Uh we're focusing on the ones that are you know uh willing to pay but they're not they're not paying. The ones that are unwilling that's a dispute you know it's a different matter. But uh those companies you have to keep sending them reminders. I like to send something called legal reminder, not a legal notice. It's like, hey, uh, you know, we're we're acting on behalf of, uh, Aar just letting you know, um, he's, you know, got this payment outstanding. If it's already paid, all right, ignore this email. So, we do it once or twice and then we'll send the big notice afterwards, just like a real estate developer would if you failed on your uh, you know, your pay payment plans. It's that concept works. the reminders uh lets the company know that yes that is a an invoice that is outstanding in their books and they will have to pay it eventually. Unfortunately, a lot of freelancers kind of fail in that aspect. They kind of emit the financial element of things and they say ah man you know I don't want to act like I'm I'm begging for this money and they're not paying. No, the reality is companies take their time with uh paying suppliers. Everybody even lawyers they take the time paying us as well. So we have to pay wait 30 60 90 days but if it gets takes longer than this then you definitely have to take a legal. Yeah. And the legal reminders are actually a very nice way because what we're saying is that the job and the file now is in the hands of the legal department and we're following up. We're not taking legal action. Yeah. But we're ready. Yeah. Whatever you do, do not send it to a debt collection agency. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. That's I think the worst thing. I don't know where this come from. I've never seen this anywhere in the world. Have you seen this practice of debt collection agency? They're not lawyers really. In the US, it's a big deal. Yeah, it's a I don't know. I come from a civil law, but here they're not really looked at favorably. U you know, because there's a lot of things that debt collectors cannot do. uh in the the practices here are very very is is really bad. Yeah. The way they handle the communication and the way they chase the is is is really not a legal. Uh yeah, that's something interesting. By the way, a lot of clients, they want me to pick up the phone and call whatever company that's not paying them and say, "Hey, listen. I am and you do you know who I am and I need you to pay it if you don't pay." And I'm like, "I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do that." The one thing that I will not do is that I've done it. I used to do it before, right? And it just it was just so cheap. Yes. You know, and I just feel like uh a hustler some, you know, from the streets. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I see one of the emails where where I'm put in CC for absolutely no reason by one company that used to work for me with me for like 3 four years ago. Uh, I'm not their lawyer anymore, but they just scare their suppliers or their customers uh with with my email. So, they say, "My lawyer is in CC and uh this is my final notice to you to pay my fees and so on." I don't mind that. That's okay. It's cool, but it's like, "Dude, you haven't paid me for the last three years. Why do you put me there? Why do you scare people because you have my email ID? It's a joke. Yeah. But yeah, but it's it's a good opener for me to give them a call and go for coffee and say, "Okay, now you use me as a as a boogeyman." Exactly. Yeah. Why not sign a retail? Imagine if the other part is your client. Exactly. I mean, this is a very funny, but Yeah. I haven't had that experience with the with No, please go ahead. Yeah, I I I faced similar uh K before with a lot of flats. Okay. So uh basically I shoot um cav and they used the video and they posted in their social media account and it went viral and as per the marketing measures okay it was a successful campaign and the reach of the videos was everywhere. This was last June until now I didn't get paid and I did all the all the games. Okay, I created um like a legal um email. Okay, I I don't want I don't want to involve any of my what do you friends in in this. Okay, I just created um a legal uh email on my uh on my domain. Okay, and I could it on the CC and I trick and I start sending to them and this is the last warning. Uh we will take a legal actions and so on and nothing. Do you have a contract with them? Unfortunately, no. Yeah. But they they approved we have we have a written emails that they approved on on the prices, they approved on the uh on the topics and the direction of the um um of uh of the videos and everything was cleared from their sides and all of the all all of this is documented on their social media account. Okay. They still use your materials? Yes. Do you want to take the case or I will take it? Ah, it's okay. We can both take it. I don't know. Yeah, let's do that. Why not? And because um having a contract makes it easier in court. Okay. However, with lawyers, litigators like Ahmed, they can build the contract and they can build the relationship before the court through the SMSs, the evidences that you talk about and the emails. So, the relationship can be created in front of the court from all the evidences and then the court will recognize it and afterwards we start the claim. So having a contract saves a lot of time and a lot of work from our side and a lot of money from your pocket because we're going to charge you for sure. Uh it's just that it is not impossible to take this money. It just needs a little bit of work. And afterwards we start the claim. When we have the contract and everything is clear and when you have your paperwork done like an invoice and uh and and approvals forms and so on, you just put the documents together. We go to court. The court study the file and they make their decision on it. The claim becomes easier faster and you will win the case. That's that's uh a guarantee. It'll just be a little bit more complex because we have to go through the uh the emails. Yep. But it's okay. But there is one more thing Sharif I will tell you because this is very important and you might um consider it later on. When things are put in writing, when we have a contract very clear terms and payments and KPIs and all of this, the people who might think let's strongarm Sharif will think twice. So when there is a contract written a very simple one, onepage contract I'm talking that simple. Okay? So just clear terms, KPIs, whoever on the other side that might think what's going to happen if I don't pay this guy, they will think twice. So having a contract is not necessarily to go to court, it's basically to avoid to go to court. You know how lawyers think? We we think as if there's a judge looking over our shoulders at all times. That's how we think when we when we go about life dealing with anybody. It's always like that. We think, "Oh, what's the judge going to say about what I just did right now or the the agreement that I signed?" Because we always look at the endgame scenario thinking, "Okay, is this going to apply in the law? Am I going to get my rights or not?" Uh, which is sort of uh exhausting. It's very exhausting. It's hard, you know. It's like endgame scenario all the time. But that's the way uh we are taught to think. But then again lawyers are like nuclear weapons. You uh hire them so that you don't need to use them. You know uh one of the things I learned but I this I learned in very early because I used to work with my dad and he was uh a litigation lawyer as well but he had relationships that goes 10 20 30 years with some of his clients and he was always going to his clients and saying let's just avoid court going to court and he was a litigation lawyer and I asked him one day like that why are you doing this I mean you don't like money or what's your problem. And he always think uh um that it is much better to have a sustainable professional relationship with a client who have less problems uh in court than having a client who goes to court win uh once and lose twice and feel like my life is is is so up and down because of litigation and lawyers don't help. They just are in the equation of of this trouble as people who benefit. But the good lawyer is always the one who will protect you and keep you out of court. I fully agree with that statement. As uh much as I like to go to court, I often times tend to advise my clients not to go to court because I want to preserve the relationship. Even if I win the case uh for the client, uh it always leaves some type of trauma because going to court is traumatic for people. Uh not necessarily companies, but if you're an individual, yes. And it's almost always scars the relationship between yourself and the and the lawyer, even if you win the case and get the money. and I uh prefer to have a sort of a a smooth uh relationship with my clients. It doesn't always work out, but you know, you do your best, right? How do you deal with the stress that comes with this uh job? Because as a litigation lawyer, you always are in the middle of a conflict. Yeah, of course, you're representing one party over the other, but uh it is a lot of stress because everybody comes to you with a a very strong emotional this balance. My dad told me something. He said, "As long as there are people in this world, there are always going to be disputes and the courts are always going to be full." And this is the reality that that we're living in. I think I mentioned this to you in the beginning, like in our first podcast together. Uh it's unavoidable. You will always have lawyers and you'll have the courts and people are going to have issues. And uh this is some some type of like uh um understanding that I put with the clients. He said, "Guys, it's normal. What you're doing right now might be new to you, but it's not new to me or to a lot of people. You have to start adjusting to it emotionally. And and I'm sort of giving you the tools and how to adjust. I'm explaining to you the procedure and and the cost. I don't want you to keep coming back and say, "Oh my god, it's too expensive and it takes too long." And all of these sort of the usual uh um complaints that people have when going to the court. I said, "Yeah, but it's like this everywhere in the world. you're not, you know, even if you go to Singapore, it's going to take this long. It's going to cost as much. Uh, you know, I think here in the UA, you we're quite on on a very high level when it comes to tech and time and and all of those. If you go to places like in Europe and so on, court takes years. And so to answer your question, I just explained to my clients that this is a natural occurrence of things in life, in business, anywhere. And uh the the older that you get, the more problems or the the more successful that you become, the more problems that you get. It's normal. You get bigger enemies, bigger competitors. Uh and uh you have to just get used to it and stop complaining over the fact that oh this being successful hurts or being uh being someone that's being targeted hurts. That's that's the life that you chose. That's that's what you wanted to attract for yourself. Ahmed is always amazing and so enjoyable to talk to you. I have couple of quick questions. Uh before we wrap this up, um a young lawyer who's starting their career and they feel like they want to do social media uh as well. What are your advices to them? Do it. When you get on social media, you are the target of pretty much everybody that you're uh addressing your videos to. And you learn uh as you go along. So, anything that you talk about, you're going to have to become become an expert at it over time because when you're addressing it over video, you're you have to be right. You the the information that you deliver has to be pretty much perfect. Uh and I would say if you want to do that, if you're good behind the camera, um by all means, do it. And there's there needs to be more lawyers on social media, I think. Um what's next with you? What's next? I mean, I know I know you said that you're going to start this uh um other page on Instagram. Can you tell us a little bit about it? So, it's a relationship uh based uh Instagram page. It's focusing on how to get involved in a long-term relationship in Dubai and how to stay in one. Uh and I will add a bit of law to it because I have that credibility as a lawyer. So, I'll talk a bit about marriage and divorce. And people have a million and a half questions about, you know, why they should get married in Dubai, uh, or get into a long-term relationship because they equate a lot of the things that happen here with the US and the UK in terms of, uh, marriage and cohabitation. It's not the case. And finding the right partner here is also very tricky as we we've talked about before. So, I'd love to get involved in this uh, dynamic. And what's interesting is that today people move to Dubai and they want to stay here forever. They don't want to leave anymore. Yeah. It's not like they want to pack up in 3 years and say, "All right, I'm done." No, this this is the best city in the world. Nobody wants to leave anymore. So, for the most part, you're going to have to find somebody that you'd like to live the rest of your life here. So, I think the page is going to be very useful. I hope. I hope. Please uh follow the page. will try to convince Ahmed to uh uh start the page very quickly so that we can put the link for you to follow. And thank you so much Ahmed. It's always amazing and pleasure to have you here with us. Thank you. Thank you.