logo

Carlos Spallarosa | Embrace Change, Stay Curious

2026-10-15

The day after he got laid off, Toys R Us offered him a full time job.

In this episode of Forward to Extraordinary, Justin Abrams sits down with Carlos Spallarossa, VP Client Partner at Cosmo5, the global agency formerly known as Labelium. He started in web hosting around 2000, spent a decade on a help desk teaching himself to code, then built SEO practices at Toys R Us and L’Oréal. He is also the client who put Justin in front of a L’Oréal boardroom eight years ago, the day Justin realized he was actually an SEO.

We get into:

  • Why he calls it a practice, not a job
  • The interview that was all banter and no technical questions
  • Brand storytelling as the new performance channel
  • Selling fragrance online when nobody can smell it
  • Why GEO is its own practice, and what share of answer measures
  • Call centers, Reddit and TikTok as content gold mines
  • Specialists versus generalists when anyone can build a dashboard in fifteen minutes
  • Balance that starts with awareness, and what his daughters taught him

Connect with Carlos:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cspallarossa/
Cosmo5: https://cosmo5.com

────────────────────────────────
LISTEN ON ALL PLATFORMS
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/1V4SjmlnG2sntDnck8UrGW

Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strictly-from-nowhere-a-podcast-experiment-by-cause/id1804380172

iHeart Radio
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-strictly-from-nowhere-a-po-315649122/

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWAstEyCK6YsKVTTRsQr37w
SUPPORT THE SHOW
Patreon
http://patreon.com/StrictlyFromNowhere

CONNECT WITH US
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/strictly-from-nowhere

Website
https://strictlyfromnowhere.com
────────────────────────────────
FOLLOW JUSTIN ABRAMS | @cuzzinjustin

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cuzzinjustin/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/cuzzinjustin/

X
https://x.com/cuzzinjustin

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@cuzzinjustin

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/cuzzinjustin24

Website
https://www.cuzzinjustin.com
────────────────────────────────
FOLLOW MIKE RISPOLI | @mike_rispoli_cto

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rispoli-cto/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mike_rispoli_cto/

X
https://x.com/michael_rispoli

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@mike_rispoli

Website
https://michaelrispoli.com/
────────────────────────────────
CAUSE OF A KIND | @causeofakind

Website
https://www.causeofakind.com

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cause-of-a-kind

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/causeofakind/
X
https://x.com/causeofakind

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@causeofakind

Newsletter Signup
http://eepurl.com/gcc-yj

Newsletter Archive
https://us16.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=847ea1526d6523a41ef1eb5a5&id=48d53e9627
────────────────────────────────
OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
CodeDojo
https://github.com/Cause-of-a-Kind/code-dojo-core

OCR Ruby GEM
https://activestorage-ocr-demo.fly.dev/
────────────────────────────────
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
Long Island Technologists
https://www.longislandtechnologists.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/long-island-technologists-networking
https://www.instagram.com/longislandtechnologists/
────────────────────────────────
We Build Products, Because We Want Them To Exist
https://coakstudio.com
────────────────────────────────
Brought to you by Cause of a Kind
A boutique software development and startup studio from Long Island, New York

Stand up. Show up. Build.

Book a Systems Audit