Tommy's Brother, Bali-Traveler
Michael "Bali-Boy" Jackett is Tommy's older bro and an avid Bali-Traveler. Michael has spent time working as a product designer for Orbea, managing businesses across Australia and kicking back in Bali during his leisure time.
Verbatim from the transcripts — each quote links to the moment.
“Like, designers are traditionally very touchy because it's so— like, you put everything, you put yourself into it.”
“Yeah, all mental stuff. It's about framing, just reframing it until you get to a point where you're comfortable.”
“I went into it going I want to learn what's wrong with me so I can fix it and then be the best person at the other end of it.”
“I kind of wish it happens so I can relieve myself of all this burden.”
“A $5 helmet has passed the same safety test that a $250 helmet has passed.”
“It tasted delicious.”
How should you give effective creative feedback to someone (e.g. a designer)?
Understand the person's process of how they arrived at the outcome before critiquing it; keep feedback about the work itself rather than making it personal, since creative people invest a lot of themselves into what they make.
How can you develop self-awareness or identify your blind spots?
Ask a network of friends and colleagues to pick several attributes from a list that summarise you, then push past the 'fluffy' positive feedback to ask directly what you're not good at and what you're not seeing about yourself.
How often should you replace a bike helmet?
Helmets should be replaced roughly every 10 years as materials and safety standards degrade or improve over time.
What's the best way to stop magpies swooping, and do bike helmet cable ties actually work?
Cable ties on helmets (often mistaken for a magpie deterrent) don't actually work; the most effective method is making direct eye contact with the magpie.
Michael dropped out of an industrial design degree after two and a half years, later returned, convinced lecturers to grant him credit for three of four remaining subjects based on industry experience, and paid other people to help complete some coursework.
Michael describes how, working for a mentor named Johnny, he hand-sculpted a bike helmet to scale out of clay on a head-form base, learning from automotive clay-modeling techniques, then had it 3D scanned and cleaned up in CAD; the final design closely matched his clay model and was used at the Tour de France.
Michael describes going down a reading rabbit hole after a Daily Talk Show episode featuring an author, leading him to 'A More Beautiful Question,' and reflecting on a weekend catch-up with 25-year friends that was mostly surface-level small talk.
Michael describes starting executive coaching with Brooke Nolli to prepare for more leadership responsibility, which quickly became life coaching focused on uncovering blind spots. He recounts realizing the process raises more questions than answers and that the goal isn't fixing flaws but building awareness.
Michael recalls his childhood barber Grant using a special comb with a built-in spirit level to achieve a perfectly flat flat-top haircut.
Drawn from the episode transcripts.
He researched automotive design techniques and hand-sculpted the helmet to scale out of clay on a CNC-cut head form to get thicknesses right, then had the clay model 3D scanned and the digital file cleaned up and stitched into surfaces by an automotive designer using CAD/Alias software so it could be turned into a manufacturing tool.
From episode 590→He learned the goal isn't to 'fix what's wrong' but to build awareness of behavioural blind spots, lean into natural tendencies rather than resist them, and that ending up with more questions than answers is actually the point of the process.
From episode 448→According to Michael Jackett, who designed helmets for a Tour de France team, a $5 helmet passes the same safety test as a $250 helmet — the expandable polystyrene core is what matters most, while pricier helmets add aerodynamic and material layers that make them harder to engineer, not necessarily safer.
From episode 399→Michael Jackett advises avoiding Kuta and Legian, staying instead in Seminyak or Canggu for restaurants, and heading to quieter southern resort areas like near Nusa Dua for a more exclusive, low-key holiday.
From episode 399→Every episode featuring Michael Jackett on The Daily Talk Show.
Michael Jackett joined Tommy Jackett and Josh Janssen on Episode 590 (26 January 2020) — "Reframing Starting With Tommy's Bro". We chat about starting, who's it for and what's it for, and reframing what you're doing as an experiment.
Pete Shepherd and Tommy's bro, Mikey are back for Weekend Banter! We chat about life coaching, Burning Man and their perfect days.
Mikey, Tommy's bro, is on for Weekend Banter! We talk about family holidays, childhood memories and what it was like growing up with Tommy.