Ryan Larrañaga, 37

Ryan Larrañaga describes himself as a multihyphenate. He’s an entrepreneur, a musician, author and father. He is also a design consultant at Home Depot, where he says he has been at the top of his division since he started working for the company in 2017, consistently ranking among the top consultants in the country.

“I do about $2 to $3 million of sales for the company a year,” Larrañaga says. Essentially, he creates designs and makes suggestions for customers’ projects, from kitchen countertops to bath design to closet or garage organization. “Pretty much the way I put it is, anything that they will allow me to sell, I will.”

Photo by Mark Wemple

For the most part, he works remotely for 25 stores from Sarasota to Naples. He says 25 to 30% of his jobs are word of mouth, while Home Depot generates the remainder of his appointments. 

When he is not consulting, he is working on his other businesses, which are in the e-commerce and music industries. “I'm a fan of multiple streams of income,” says Larrañaga. 

About a year ago, Larrañaga says, he founded an e-commerce company called Aizkora LLC, which is based on the Basque word for “axe.” (His father’s side of the family is Basque, from northern Spain.) Aizkora sells chef knives, kitchenware, fine salts and spices.

It “encompasses more of the chef's side of my brain,” says Larrañaga, who went to culinary school in Frederick, Maryland, and decided to pursue other career tracks after spending time in the industry.

One of those paths was in entertainment; Larrañaga started recording his rap music in 2009 under the name Ryanito and in the years that followed, he founded Fire Tiger Music Group. To date, Ryanito has released five albums and has a sixth coming out in November. For a music video accompanying his 2020 album, he wore a live python around his neck.

He also wrote a 2023 children's book based on his life called "The Cosmic Kid" and made a documentary released this year called "The Cosmic Guide Experience," about a recording he made with The Pops Orchestra of Bradenton and Sarasota as well as Michael Mendez of Sarasota's Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.

In all his ventures, Larrañaga says he feels guided by one of the sayings of his mentor: his grandfather. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” his grandfather, a naval attaché from Uruguay during World War II, used to say in Spanish.

"I hear the word can't a lot, and that has never been something that's been in my vocabulary. I was raised by a military family," Larrañaga says. “My grandfather always inspired me to be great. If I feel like there’s something that I want to accomplish...then I'll do it.”