How Paragon Payroll Built Trust in the Cannabis Industry by Saying What Others Wouldn’t

Paragon Payroll’s Endless Customers Journey

Paragon Payroll helps cannabis businesses pay their people accurately and stay compliant in one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country.

In that environment, trust is everything.

As Clarke Lyons, VP of Brand Marketing and Growth, put it:

“It is a volatile market. It’s a very difficult market for a lot of people. And, you know, something very small could cost someone their business completely.”

Many payroll vendors saw legalization as a revenue opportunity. Clarke described vendors charging inflated fees simply because a client was in cannabis, offering little education, and dropping clients when banks flagged their accounts.

By the time many business owners found Paragon, they were afraid of payroll providers altogether. Clarke said they would arrive “terrified to have a payroll partner, which is very abnormal.”

After Paragon’s leadership was introduced to the Endless Customers System™, the company decided to implement it with coaching from IMPACT.

Taking a stand

Paragon’s leadership team started by asking a hard question: what is broken in this industry, including in our own practices?

The answer became the Cannabis Committed Manifesto, a public explanation of what Paragon believes is wrong in cannabis payroll, what real compliance looks like, and how business owners can tell whether a vendor is truly committed to the industry or simply profiting from it.

Clarke credited IMPACT with helping the team get there:

“I have to give it to you and your team. Honestly, you helped us pave an interesting way for us to confront some of the nuances within our industry.”

Publishing it also meant Paragon had to live up to it.

Clarke explained:

“It also made us have to hold a mirror up to ourselves and make sure that we were rooted in doing the things that we were calling out.”

How they implemented

With coaching from IMPACT, Paragon Payroll:

• Started with leadership alignment, beginning with small conversations among company leaders before rolling the work out more broadly.

• Published the Cannabis Committed Manifesto, giving business owners clear criteria for evaluating payroll vendors, including Paragon itself.

• Made the manifesto easy to consume, including an audio version for busy owners who might not have time to read it.

• Prepared the team for reaction, talking through how to respond before publicly calling out industry practices.

• Built a steady publishing rhythm, going from no blog at all to publishing three articles a week, with a one-person marketing department.

• Used content in sales, sharing articles during the sales process to answer common questions and concerns.

Results

Clarke described changes in leads, reputation, and how the market sees Paragon:

• More online leads: Paragon generated 145 more online leads in the first six months of a year than in the entire previous year.

• A real content engine: from zero blogs to three a week, used to support both marketing and sales.

• A stronger market position: Paragon has been invited onto industry panels, featured by Cannabis Business Insights, and recognized as one of the best workplaces to work for.

• Buyers who arrive with trust: business owners now approach the team at events to say the manifesto changed how they think about vendors.

Clarke shared what people tell the team:

“I read the manifesto, I feel seen, I feel supported.”

Why coaching mattered

Publicly calling out problems in a highly regulated industry carries real risk. And as a marketing department of one, Clarke knew the team could easily take on more than it could handle.

Coaching helped Paragon map out each step, prepare the team for the conversations the manifesto might start, and keep the work moving.

Clarke described the focus of those conversations with IMPACT:

“How do we talk through these things? And are we ready and what does that look like.”

The feedback turned out to be far more positive than the team expected. Even the critics started the kind of industry dialogue Paragon wanted to create.

What’s next

Paragon Payroll plans to keep leading through education and community involvement:

• Continuing to publish content that closes the industry’s education gap

• Expanding CannaU, its education program for new cannabis business owners and their teams

• Sponsoring industry events and offering social equity discounts

• Advocating for fair treatment of cannabis businesses

Clarke’s advice for other businesses:

“If you do want to be an industry leader, then I would say that the quicker that you can join the journey, the better.”

Want results like this in your business?

If your industry has problems nobody wants to say out loud, Paragon Payroll’s story shows what can happen when you take a clear stand, back it up with education, and hold yourself to the same standard.

Curious where your business stands today? Take the free Instant Diagnostic to see how buyers and AI see you, or schedule time to talk with our team about what the Endless Customers Coaching Program could look like for you.