Here’s Why Lars Hedenborg Shut Down his Profitable High Ticket Funnel

Lars had a massive ad budget, a “closer” team, all the tech tools to max out ROAS.Still couldn’t get the conversion numbers he wanted.So he started taking sales calls with agents again.Over 150 this year.And what is he hearing from agents? Exhaustion.Not because agents are doing the fundamentals and it’s not working.They don’t even want to hear that fundamentals are the answer.So I asked Lars if there’s a sweet spot between what agents want to hear…and what they need to hear from industry leaders?Lars’ hilarious response was, “Oh my Lord…Oh my Lord…”There’s a lot to share from this conversation. Buckle up accordingly.Non-Obvious Insights from the Conversation:2X return on ad spend can be profitable….and still be unsustainable.“There’s no easy way to pivot that model…when you’re spending all this money, it’s creating leads, my setters are setting appointments... Within 48, maybe even 24 hours [of shutting off ads], it’s crickets. So it’s not even really a business.I went HARD into the ads, but then you’re all in the ads…We were at $3200 spend for a $10k offer with $6500 cash collected. So only a 2X return on initial spend... But then you turn it off, and there’s nothing going on.”And when he showed up to the sales calls for the high ticket offer, he found that agents couldn’t afford it.So he partnered with a company that offers financing.HALF the clients used financing on the $10k offer.What’s driving this shift?The number of solid, producing agents may have dropped by HALF from 2023-2024.“You'll ask them, How's business? And they'll just go to those years [2023 and earlier] ‘Well, I went from 25 to 12.’ And how many homes have you closed this year? It's like one or two. And [it was] four months into the year…Last year, 1% of agents sold 25 homes or more, but two years before that it was 2%.”In other words, agents got away with a lack of fundamentals in 2023.Lost momentum in 2024.Hit a wall in 2025.But what’s driving the exhaustion and lack of motivation Lars is hearing from agents?Agents have been burned by 100 “easy button” offers.“We’re just in a trust recession. What someone needs to hear, and what’s going to motivate them to want to follow you or [buy], are two totally different things. And I’m not going to be the guy to master [saying] what they want to hear.I'm not going to pick on the person or even say their name, but there's someone who's a very popular YouTuber in the real estate space that hasn't sold 50 homes in their entire career. I watch their stuff and it's very good, but to me that's inauthentic.”But what about going down the Alex Hormozi path… engineering the living $#*% out of all your content?“I went down that path….and all of a sudden I have two editors, one for short form, one for long form. I did a $24k, 90 day program on how to learn short form. And what am I doing? I blew all that up.Some of my better content is created when I’m in a natural conversation with someone… So I’m recording here on my cell phone and then [we] cut that into stuff. My focus is on what I’m saying when I’m not thinking about what I’m saying.”Can you go down the Alex Hormozi path?Absolutely. And if it’s authentic to you, it may work, BUT…It takes a massive amount of energy to be someone you’re not. Most will start with excitement, then eventually burn out.And neglect the fundamentals that would have worked along the way.Lars is pivoting hard…back to the fundamentals.The organic approach that originally built the business. In his case that’s his Facebook Group and email list.Want to go deeper? Click on the audio file above to listen to the full chat, also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. There’s SO much I couldn’t cover in this newsletter!Or Hit Reply and tell me what you’re seeingAre you hearing something different from agents?Are energy levels and motivation picking up coming into the fall?Ask This:Lars is focusing on this question, “How big can I build this business with the bare minimum?”Quick Links & ResourcesGrowthCoachLars.comA huge thank you to Lars for being brutally open and transparent!Hopefully it helps other leaders make better decisions about their marketing.Talk soon,-MattCEO - MicroFamousAuthor - MicroFamousPS Want a platform like this?Click here to check out our Done-for-You Content service. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethoughtleaders.substack.com