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We can hear. We can see. We can smell. We can taste. We can feel the things we touch and that touch us. People have five senses. A great way to boost your storytelling is to trigger all five senses of your audience.

What most public speakers do well is appeal to people’s visual sense:

Suddenly I was standing in front of this imposing Gothic church.

And then a sleazy businessman in his early fifties approached me.

I was standing in front of the cheesiest Chrismas tree I had ever seen.

What you can do even better in public speaking is to activate all the other senses — hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Examples: “Hearing”

 I heard a squeeking sound.

 We listened to the song “With Or Without You" by U2.

 The deep growl of an accelerating Harley-Davidson woke me up.

Examples: “Touch”

 The skin of the great white shark felt like sandpaper.

 I touched the hot iron.

 The fine white sand of the Seychelles beach slipped softly through my fingers.

Examples: “Smell”

 My neighbor’s freshly baked Streusel cake reminded me of happy days in my childhood.

 It smelled like conference coffee.

 A choking black cloud of diesel smoke enveloped us.

Examples: “Taste”

 It tasted like crispy Oktoberfest chicken.

 I will never forget the fruitfully acid taste of that 2004 Numantia red wine.

 The peach was so ripe it tasted like innocence.

The senses of hearing and smell offer the most pregnant possibilities for distinguishing yourself from other speakers. Songs, sounds, and smells, blended and seasoned, make a fantastic rhetorical dish.

Boost your content even more by touching all five senses of your audience.