Business Is Art. The Founder Is the Artist.

What we talked about.

In this return conversation with Sunny Ray, executive coach Ramon reflects on a quiet season spent listening beneath the surface of his own journey. A six-time founder turned coach, Ramon explains why he narrowed his practice to founder CEOs with real revenue and traction, helping them shift from doing everything to becoming specialists who can scale. He traces his path through Mexico City, Veracruz, Madrid, Lisbon, Monterrey and now Barcelona, describing how constant movement taught him the difference between being a tourist and a traveler. Ramon opens up about his grandmother, a self-made beauty entrepreneur in 1950s Mexico who introduced him to Indian philosophy and mind training, and how that lineage shaped his own spiritual curiosity. He connects engineering discipline with mystical experience, jazz improvisation with Sherlock Holmes style deduction, and creativity with what he calls co-creation. Drawing on Steven Pressfield's concept of resistance, he describes his own struggle to show up authentically after years of leading with credentials. The conversation closes on the moment his ego loosened its grip, prompting his shift from building companies to building the people who build them.

A six-time founder turned coach on resistance, identity, and why founders must become the artists of their own businesses.

The questions, and the answers.

Since our last conversation about loneliness at the top, you said you've been quiet for a season, listening beneath the surface. What were you actually listening for?

I realized I was getting busy just to have as many clients as possible, but it wasn't resonating deep in my heart. So I refocused my coaching over the past year and a half onto founder CEOs who already have product market fit and revenues above five or ten million, because that's where founders need to shift from doing everything themselves to becoming specialists who can scale their companies.

You've lived in Mexico City, Veracruz, Madrid, Lisbon, Monterrey, and now Barcelona. How did moving through all those places shape how you read people and who you became?

Moving allowed me to realize, by contrast, who I am and what I like. There's a saying that the map is not the territory. I learned the difference between being a tourist, who checks off top places, and being a traveler who gets immersed. I lived in Lisbon just seven months and learned Portuguese by fully immersing myself. That gave me resilience and flexibility in how I think.

Alongside your engineering degree and MBA, you've studied chi kung, meditation, and shamanism. Where did that path start?

It traces back to my grandmother on my mother's side. She built a beauty empire in Mexico City in the 1950s after being rejected by her family, and she studied Indian philosophy and Silva Mind Control to build it. She talked to me about the power of the mind since I was a tiny boy, so I've been spiritually curious since I was eighteen, though for a long time I was performing spirituality rather than truly living it.

You love jazz and Sherlock Holmes, improvisation and deduction. Which one runs the show when you're in a room with a founder?

It's like a ladder. You need the technique first, the notes and scales, that's the scientific part like an MBA. But eventually you bring your uniqueness and improvise, like a jazz quartet where one instrument takes over. Sherlock represents using all the elements around you and threading connections into wisdom. My sessions are fluent, I'm jazzing with the client while also deducing the thread that matters.

You trained in systems, optimization, and control, and now your whole practice is about the parts of a person you can't optimize. How did the engineer make peace with the mystic?

The old paradigm since the industrial revolution treats everything, including people, as resources to optimize. But having kids is totally irrational, out of our control, and that's what makes life real. The engineer in me still builds structured ninety day programs, but the mystic wants to be wowed by the scenery, to actually live and drink the wine, not just read about it.

What's the idea that's recently rearranged how you show up this year?

I went back to Steven Pressfield's concept of resistance from The War of Art, the part of ourselves that stops us from showing our true selves. I realized I was hiding behind my credentials, my MBA and coaching certifications, instead of showing the mystic side of me. Now I'm being much more open about the inner work and spiritual part of founder coaching, because that authenticity is the real secret ingredient.

You were a six time founder before you ever called yourself a coach. What was happening when you decided to stop building companies and start building the people who build them?

It happened when I stopped following my ego so blindly. I realized I wanted to be on the cover of Forbes and show I had a good life, but that never gave me real self-worth. I had to ask myself if I was actually serving the world or just on an ego trip. I went into coaching training because I realized I was being a good boss, pushing my team, but not a good leader.