Melissa Wilkinson & Matt Mosse-Robinson from Personalised Favours | #552

In today's Checkout episode, we get to know Melissa Wilkinson, Founder, and Matthew Mosse-Robinson, CEO of Personalised Favours, Australia’s leading personalised gifting brand. From tiny sandwich presses to Better Brother trophies, Mel and Matt share the weird things they’ve bought online, the tools they rely on, and what’s keeping them up at night (spoiler: it’s not the laser engravers this time).

Listen to their main episode here.

Transcript

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Speaker 1 0:00

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Speaker 2 0:55

Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous Add to Cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Here's your host, Bushy.

Speaker 1 1:10

Today's Checkout features Mel Wilkinson and Matt Moss-Robinson, the family duo behind Personalised Favours. Personalised Favours is Australia's go-to destination for custom gifts that actually mean something. What began with a bride on the hunt for a meaningful wedding favor has grown into a powerhouse gifting business. Personalized Favors now operates out of a custom built warehouse with over 50 staff, shipping thousands of customized products every week across Australia, new Zealand and the US. Along the way, mel and Matt have landed on the 2025 top 50 and top 10 people in e-commerce lists and have even created gifts for big names like Lamborghini, porsche and DoorDash. In this checkout, we talk about their weirdest purchase on Amazon, the battle for better brother trophy and why Asana's unicorn animation is basically Mel's emotional support animal.

Speaker 1 2:04

Mel and Matt, thank you so much for joining us on the Checkout. We had a brilliant conversation with you a few weeks ago where we talked about the amazing business that you're building with Personalized Favors Everything from your custom production system that's getting you ready to be able to ship personalized orders within the same day. We're not making any promises yet, though. All of that is through to some upcoming things that you're doing around rebranding customized gifts for companies such as Lamborghini and the challenges of running a business and how you get it to the point where you can let your team take over for a little bit to go on a cruise. So we heard all of that, but we're here to learn a little bit more about you both. So I've got five quick questions. Number one what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online, mel? I'm going to start with you.

Speaker 3 2:53

That's going to have to be an Amazon purchase and it was a sandwich press right. So the sandwich it just does one sandwich and it's cute, it's like bright yellow and when you press it down it actually cuts the one sandwich into four little sandwiches which are only four by four centimetres. I don't know why. It was a good buy. Have I used it? I've used it once. I thought it would be good, but I've been really regretful. I should have said I bought it from.

Speaker 1 3:22

Team U, that's great. Mini sandwiches, I mean interior great.

Speaker 4 3:30

Probably the weirdest thing I've purchased is my brother and I are crazy competitive against each other growing up. Yeah, competitive in pretty much everything. So we've got this award called the Better Brother Award and we purchased a trophy. So we've got a Better Brother trophy and any competition that we have against each other, the winner gets that trophy. So, yeah, that's the weirdest thing I've purchased. Who's holding it at the moment? My brother's got it. He's got like an undefeated streak of about five years, like I've got old and fat, so it's not really helping my cause.

Speaker 1 4:04

You've got to change the game or something. Have a competition around spreadsheets.

Speaker 4 4:07

Oh yeah, who can build an e-commerce business called?

Speaker 3 4:10

Personal Spaces. Oh, he's pretty cluey, he's very smart.

Inspiring Retailers and Tech Essentials

Speaker 1 4:16

Oh god, I hate those people who are good at sport and also really smart, like pick a lane yeah, it's not fair I didn't mean to laugh so hard. Which retailer has inspired you most recently, Matt?

Speaker 4 4:32

I'm going to start with you oh God, I wouldn't say recently, actually recently. I love Catherine from Waterdrop, what they've been doing. I was at the Australian Open earlier on this year and I really loved their installation and everything that they had there. They had people lining up for 40 minutes to buy a $75 water bottle. I was really impressed with what they had there.

Speaker 1 4:55

She'll love hearing that. I'll make sure she hears it. She's amazing. What about you, Mel?

Speaker 3 5:00

I love the brand Meshki. I actually haven't bought from them, but they're a global fashion brand and I just think, yeah, nat and Shadi yeah, the two architect students have grown this business from nothing like turnover 120 million. But what they're two architect students They've grown this business from nothing like turnover $120 million. But what they're doing on socials is incredible. They're really leaders in, yeah, all the AI stuff. Like they're ones to watch. Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 5:23

When you say the AI piece and not to put you on the spot, is there anything that stands out for you in how they're using AI?

Speaker 3 5:30

well, they do these videos where they'll have their products, but then it just like folds up into like you know, like food, like they make it into food and like keto and it is. And then they did they were the ones that did, I don't even know it's AI but where it's a split screen where they're pouring a matcha drink and it's sort of going down the straw and it looks yeah, it's incredible, yeah, that's cool. I really love watching their social.

Speaker 1 5:55

I love people who blend AI with design or creativity. You can tell there's some thought that's gone into it. Yeah, all right. Number three, mel, for you. To start with, can you name a piece of tech that your business or yourself couldn't live without?

Speaker 3 6:09

For me it's Asana, which is like a workflow platform. I honestly live for that unicorn that flies across the screen when you check off a few things. I think, Asana, people will understand what I mean, but I do. I get so excited. It just gives me that dolphin rush and, yeah, I love it Awesome. It rules my life.

Speaker 1 6:29

The unicorn rules your life yeah.

Speaker 4 6:34

What about you, matt? Well, no unicorns for me, but yeah, I'm going to be super boring, like we couldn't live without our Shopify Plus store. Obviously, that's the bread and butter of the business, so absolutely not.

Books, Podcasts and Business Challenges

Speaker 1 6:45

Love it. I know some friends of the show who will appreciate that response. Number four can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into? Matt got any for us.

Speaker 4 6:56

Again, I'm not really painting myself as a really exciting person, but a book that I've loved recently is Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. I saw so much of our business in that book the first time that I went through it and, yeah, just adopting all the techniques and everything in there. I highly recommend it if you haven went through it and yeah, just adopting all the techniques and everything in there.

Speaker 1 7:17

I highly recommend it if you haven't read it. That's amazing hearing that from you, because obviously your background in banking and Profit First is very accessible and probably a really simple way to run a business. But I've heard that recommendation from a few people. I've read the book myself. Is there something in that simplicity when it comes to financials, Like do you see it often getting too complicated for people?

Speaker 4 7:35

Yeah, and everything becomes as complex as you're going to make it Like. Quite often you feel that it needs to be that complex for it to work, but there's a level of beautifulness in simplicity and, yeah, I love anything that makes something that's perceived to be complex really simple. So, yeah, it really resonated with me.

Speaker 1 7:54

Awesome Mel, any books or podcasts that have caught your eye.

Speaker 3 7:57

I'm going to give a shout-out to Brittany Saunders from Big Business. She recently put out an episode where she spoke about her. Well, she revealed her P&L numbers, which I thought was very brave of her, so she went for a deep dive into that and really just wanted to show her audience. It's important to know your numbers and also don't be shy to talk about them as well. So, yeah, I'd listen to that.

Speaker 1 8:20

She's incredible.

Speaker 3 8:21

She should come onto your podcast. Have you ever been on your podcast?

Speaker 1 8:24

Well, funny story, I have Instagram DM'd, I've emailed the site. She even came to our Tribune Night and I had a quick conversation with her, but I didn't want to go. Hey, you're at our Tribune Night, come on the podcast. So if she's listening and a team's listening, I would love to have Brittany on at some point. I'm like, yeah, but she's busy, she's got a lot going on, so are you.

Speaker 3 8:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:48

All right, last one, I've got for you, number five. What's your biggest challenge today, mel?

Speaker 3 8:54

I can't clone myself. Yeah, I feel like there's just so much to do and everything's moving so quickly, especially with AI, and I just, yeah, it gets overwhelming at times. I feel like that's where I'm at at the moment, but just having to break it down to bite-sized pieces and yeah, just one thing at a time, right.

Speaker 1 9:13

Is it hard balancing operational excellence with the big strategic plans that you have?

Speaker 3 9:20

Oh, absolutely Just balancing project work with just running a business and then also balancing. I've got two young kids who are five and six and home and keeping a happy husband. You know, it's all yeah it's all a balancing act.

Speaker 1 9:31

Yeah, yeah, all balanced, love it. What about you?

Speaker 4 9:34

Matt. Look, I'm going to largely echo Mel, like it's all resource-based and there's so many options out there that where we can put our I don't know both money and effort and actually knowing what's the right one, and picking that horse and actually trying to avoid the new shiny things that are coming along while you're trying to execute something as well, like some of that ai stuff. It's so exciting and so interesting, but like your elbows deep in trying to execute something else at the same time that you can't really take your focus away.

Speaker 4 10:05

So, yeah, absolutely Like, yeah maintaining focus and resource planning and stuff like that is really difficult.

Speaker 1 10:11

Makes a lot of sense. Mel and Matt, thank you so much for joining us on the Checkout.

Speaker 3 10:15

Thanks so much, nate, it was awesome.

Speaker 1 10:19

Want more from Mel and Matt, don't miss the main episode of Add to Cart, number 534, where they unpack how they manage 74,000 SKUs, built an on-demand production engine and found a way to step away from their business for the first time for a month-long cruise. The link is in the episode description and, if you haven't already join the Add to Cart community at addtocartcomau, it's free, it's fun and it's packed with smart e-commerce operators just like you.