Shawn Worth: Calm, Clear Support for Cannabis Operators
Feb 23, 2026
Behind every compliant paycheck and protected license is someone turning chaos into clarity. Shawn Worth at Paragon Payroll helps cannabis teams stay steady through payroll, compliance, and growth, with support that does not disappear when it gets hard.
Why Shawn entered cannabis
Some people enter the cannabis industry because it’s trending.
Shawn Worth entered because people needed someone who would stay.
As a Customer Success Manager at Paragon Payroll, Shawn works at the intersection of compliance, workforce stability, and human impact, where missed paychecks, unclear regulations, or abandoned vendors don’t just create inconvenience, they create real harm.
For Shawn, this work is deeply personal. Rooted in his Minnesota upbringing, he sees cannabis not just as an industry, but as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build something more equitable, more transparent, and more human than what came before.
A career built on translating complexity into stability
Shawn brings 8+ years of experience across HCM, payroll, and HR operations, supporting organizations through onboarding, adoption, compliance, and long-term growth. His background spans hands-on work with iSolved, ADP Workforce Now, and other enterprise HCM ecosystems, often in highly regulated or high-stakes environments.
Before joining Paragon, Shawn sat inside organizations where compliance wasn’t theoretical. He administered payroll and HR systems through audits, policy changes, and labor complexity, ensuring adherence to ADA, FMLA, ACA, and EEO requirements, while supporting both unionized and non-unionized workforces.
That lived experience shapes how he shows up today: grounded, consultative, and focused on systems that actually work when the pressure is on.
Paragon Payroll didn’t enter cannabis because it was convenient.
Paragon entered because the people who were supposed to serve this industry didn’t.
When large national payroll providers dropped cannabis operators en masse, sometimes overnight, Paragon stepped in. When predatory vendors treated cannabis as a short-term cash grab and disappeared when things got difficult, Paragon stayed.
That commitment isn’t a slogan. It’s operational.
Paragon has walked the halls of Congress advocating for cannabis legitimacy, participated in national industry leadership spaces, and built cannabis-specific resources, not because it looks good on a website, but because operators asked for them.
Shawn aligned with Paragon because their values matched his own: show up early, stay late, and don’t disappear when it gets hard.
Customer Success, done the way cannabis actually needs it
In his role at Paragon (Nov 2022–Present), Shawn manages a portfolio of SMB and mid-market cannabis clients across payroll, HR, benefits, timekeeping, and HRIS modules. His work centers on proactive engagement, not reactive firefighting.
That includes:
Consultative onboarding that reduces overwhelm
Compliance-centered guidance that protects licenses
Strategic advisory sessions focused on ROI and operational efficiency
Cross-functional collaboration with Sales, Product, and Support to ensure continuity
In an industry where “support” often disappears after implementation, Shawn’s role is about consistency, making sure clients aren’t left navigating audits, growth, or change alone.
Minnesota, social equity, and building markets the right way
Minnesota represents something powerful: a chance to build a cannabis market informed by the mistakes of others, where infrastructure, education, and equity are baked in from the beginning.
Shawn is especially invested in educational equity, the belief that access to clear information, compliant systems, and workforce tools should not be reserved for only the most capitalized operators.
That belief directly supports Paragon’s work with social equity teams, including the introduction of a social equity discount designed to remove financial barriers to stable payroll and HR infrastructure.
Because equity doesn’t stop at licensing, it continues through payroll, benefits, compliance, and long-term sustainability.
How Paragon shows up for the cannabis community
Paragon’s commitment to cannabis extends far beyond software. It shows up in action, often behind the scenes.
Organizing and supporting community events in real spaces where operators, HR leaders, and founders can meet, connect, and build relationships that matter
Openly sharing a vetted cannabis ecosystem—banking partners, compliance resources, benefits providers, workforce tools—without gatekeeping
Transparent, standardized pricing with no “cannabis tax”, paired with systems designed to integrate smoothly into the broader cannabis ecosystem
Sponsoring licensees to attend industry events, helping operators get into rooms they might otherwise be priced out of
Producing educational content, toolkits, and learning resources that go far beyond payroll and remain useful even if someone isn’t yet a client
Working with often-neglected tribal communities, ensuring sovereign operators have access to respectful, compliant infrastructure
Active participation in NCIA—including committee involvement, and encouraging employees to serve the industry beyond Paragon through board work, nonprofit leadership, and licensed consumption lounge community spaces
Supporting employees directly through resources like TurboTax assistance, helping people navigate real-life financial moments, not just payday
Shawn plays a key role in connecting clients into this ecosystem, introducing trusted partners, advocating internally for equitable solutions, and ensuring operators know what support is actually available to them.
Workforce stability means supporting real people
Shawn believes retention doesn’t come from slogans, it comes from tangible support.
That’s why Paragon integrates value-add partnerships that strengthen employee experience without adding cost or administrative burden:
ZayZoon, providing earned wage access and employee experience tools that reduce financial stress and turnover
Retirement planning partnerships like LRS Retirement, supporting long-term workforce wellbeing
Employee-facing tools that simplify tax season and financial navigation
These aren’t upsells, they’re stabilizers.
Looking forward: what the industry needs next
Shawn sees a future where cannabis succeeds not by cutting corners, but by professionalizing without losing its humanity.
The operators who will last are those with:
Clear, consistent compliance support
Partners who don’t disappear under pressure
Systems that scale with multi-entity growth
Education that protects licenses and uplifts people
In other words, the future belongs to partners who were built for cannabis on purpose.
Why this work matters
If you ask Shawn what this industry has taught him, the answer is simple:
The strongest cannabis operators aren’t the loudest.
They’re the ones who keep showing up, through regulation shifts, staffing challenges, vendor instability, and public stigma, still trying to build something legitimate for their teams and communities.
That’s who this work is for.
And that’s why Shawn, and Paragon, aren’t going anywhere.