I Expressed My Love for My Wife Using PowerPoint. Here’s Why.

Two months ago, I had the idea of designing a PowerPoint template inspired by and dedicated to my wife, Reem. You know, for love's sake.

Why?

Well, other than the fact that I love her more so than I can express in words, and that I wanted to gift her with something spontaneous just because I could, I felt there was a bigger need to go ahead with it.

I wanted to encourage her, just like she encouraged me.

It’s time to read, learn, and love, folks!

Reem and I met around three years ago. I’ll never forget the day.

I was invited over to my cousin’s house. When I got there, there were three people. Two of which were familiar: my cousin, and his wife.

But that last person? Oh man.

I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I saw her for the very first time.

That person was Reem, and I don’t even know how to explain it. She was just this person who I was extremely fascinated with. She was gorgeous, smart, funny - all that good stuff.

It honestly felt like I was that love-struck male protagonist in a chick flick.

We hit it off from the very first conversation, and I really wanted to carry the momentum forward, so I asked for her number, and she gave it to me.

But apparently, I was a little naive back then … well, according to her at least.

You see, as we were texting each other like crazy for a couple of weeks, I felt it was a good time to ask her out for a cup of coffee.

I was denied.

Not once.

Not twice.

But three times.

She told me she needed to be “ready.” I had no idea what that meant. I still don’t. But hey, eventually she gave me a shot (three tries later!) and we went out for our first coffee date.

It was awesome. We talked about everything: our passions, our ambitions, our careers, where we want to be. We were so different but so aligned. It was like two people forming a yin-yang symbol.

I knew this woman was my soulmate right there and then.

We built on our relationship, little by little. We went on more dates, opened up to each other more, you know, all that cute stuff.

And when the time was right, I asked her to marry me.

And the rest is history.

Let’s be clear about something.

If it wasn’t for Reem encouraging me to move Slide Cow forward, it wouldn’t have existed the way you see it now. Period.

And I’m not just saying that as a matter of dedicating some “love words” to my wife.

I really mean it; if it wasn’t for her pushing me time and again to try new things, take on different roles, approach different people, and make something out of nothing, then I promise you, I would have left Slide Cow to die.

Just to give you an idea of how valuable Reem is, I’m going to provide snippets of some of the conversations we had about me trying to progress Slide Cow.

And yeah, I did mention her influence before. In fact, I mentioned my wife’s words of encouragement many times. But that’s kind of the point

It’s important to understand just how valuable Reem is in the overall progress of Slide Cow. She doesn’t touch anything in the business but instead controls its momentum through her encouragement.

And to me, that’s just priceless. I couldn’t ask for a better partner. And if expressing my love through a simple PowerPoint template is the best way to show my gratitude, then so be it.

And now it’s my turn.

Let’s start off by saying that we’re all hypocrites.

Yes, you read that right.

As people, we have this idea to validate the strong potential in others, but more often than not, we refuse to see even a slight resemblance of that same potential in ourselves.

Yes, I’m a victim of this mindset, too.

But when you apply that same concept to something as deeply connected and intricate as a marriage, you can’t help but feel obligated to do something about it.

But what can I say, or even do, to encourage someone to achieve their passions? Especially when that person is my own wife?

Reem is smart, funny, intelligent, and extremely dedicated. She’s the kind of person who will stop at nothing (and I mean nothing) to get what she’s after.

But the problem is she doesn’t know what she wants … yet.

She’s a day-to-day type of person - and there’s nothing wrong with that. If that’s what makes her happy, then who the hell am I to even consider her following another path?

But she has always expressed that there this burning desire in her to achieve and contribute more to herself, our marriage, and the world.

Again, it’s all about identifying what that “something” is. And I can’t exactly force her to achieve goals if they’re not hers.

What I can do is create an environment of encouragement. In that environment is a safe place to talk, explore, and try new things. In that same environment is a high tolerance of failure - or should I say, “things that haven’t worked out just yet.”

My goal is to ensure that this tolerance is so high that there is absolutely no limit to how many times she wants to try something new.

I don't care if she wants to be a stone skipper, but I do care that she strives to be the best damn stone skipper in the world.

The point is, I want Reem to try and do something, anything, that will encourage her to find what she’s destined to be.

And that is precisely why I created the Reem PowerPoint Template.

Expressing my love in words isn’t an easy thing to do. It never ever was. I always lock up like a teenager on prom night.

But designing slides? That I’m good at. Hell, I genuinely think that I’m in the top 1% of the world at making jaw-droppingly good PowerPoint slides (excuse the ego boost).

So it only made sense for me to create a PowerPoint template that was not only dedicated to her but inspired by her.

And I mean that - every single little bit of detail in that template is a result of her beauty, her thoughts, and her personality.

Don’t believe me?

Okay. Check these out:

• Her favorite colors are red, grey, black and white, which is what I based the presentation’s theme on.
• She doesn’t like to over show anything, which is why I went for a minimalist design.
• She loves drinking watered-down soup when she’s ill, hence why I used the Bree Serif Font (yes, "Bree" actually means soup) as a basis for heading typography.
• Her favorite number is 1,000 - which is why I’ve included 1,000 icons.
• She loves it when I wear a suit, which is why I dedicated 5 slides to pure business-related infographics depicted by men and women in business attire.
• She loves to travel, which is why I’ve included fully editable country maps from all over the world (just over 25 maps to be exact).

I could go on, but I feel you already got the idea.

Through this PowerPoint template, I’ve established two things.

First and foremost, I found a way to express my love for Reem without using words (or a lot of them, at least).

Second, I created a special place just for her; a special place that leads to innovation, ingenuity, and beauty.

And the best part? You can all enjoy it too.

They say that behind every great man is a great woman.

I don’t think that’s true.

I think that next to every man is an even greater woman. And Reem is no exception - she’s the fuel I need to keep pushing Slide Cow to become a success story.

I love you, Reem. We’re in this together.