WATCH: Behind the scenes with David Cameron and his speechwriters

Conservative Party leader David Cameron gave a landmark speech at the Conservative Conference on October 8. He's long been known as a fine speechmaker, and some of his secrets are revealed to viewers of this 2006 clip of him talking with his speechwriter and other advisors about an upcoming speech.

If every speaker and speechwriter could sit down and watch this clip togehter, the speechwriting world would be a better place.

Oh the luxury it must be to work with speechwriters! But Vital Speeches called Cameron "Britain's best speaker," and it's really instructive to watch these people at work.

"What Your Car Says About You"

The other day Forbes published an interesting article titled, "What Your Car Says About You." The first paragraph starts with...

Porsches smack of success. Hondas preach practicality. And, according to a recent report, Chevys proudly proclaim of their owners, "I don't use the Internet."

The article is based off of Strategic Vision's New Vehicle Experience Study. Read the article to glean some insights into owners of Hondas, Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, and Mini Coopers.

For quick reviews of several manufacturer's, read the companion article on Bentley, Buick, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Lexus, Mini Cooper, Scion, Toyota, Rolls-Royce.

One day this summer, while walking with my family on the Santa Barbara pier, my son excitedly pointed out to me a large starfish floating in the water.

We talked that day about the starfish's amazing powers of regeneration. We couldn't help but wonder, wouldn't it be great if people also could grow back lost limbs?

But then it occured to me that in a metaphorical sense, we can!

Many of my clients express anxiety that they will forget part of their speech and that this will get them off track and ultimately ruin the whole speech.

It's not quite an argument for mindmapping, but it's awfully close. Read the whole post for the explanation.I

"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die." ~ Howard's End

I love this statement: Only connect. It is the crux of human relationships, of course. And it is the crux of the speaker/audience relationship. You can have good material, perfect organization and skilled delivery, but if you don't connect with the audience, something critical is missing.

Lisa Brathwaite suggests nine ways to connect with an audience. Besides the text of her message, Lisa provides a downloadable audio message at her site.

Every speaker speaks with notes - even the ones that insist notes shouldn't be used at all!

When speaking 'without notes', our brains are still referring back to what we have written in preparation for the speech, or referencing touchpoints in the room that represent tentpoles in their presentation. Even if you are speaking off the cuff, you are pulling information out of your head as fast as possible, essentially looking for notes in the broad files of your brain.

Without getting mired too far into the neuroscience of note usage, let's look at ways you can use notes effectively in your presentations.

One of the bugaboos of Toastmasters seems to be that you can't speak with notes. Here's a blog post by Rich Hopkins, a finalist in Toastmasters' International Speech Contest, that says otherwise and provides seven ways for doing it well.