“I have to believe in something to sell it”

After a devastating car crash that threatened his burgeoning career, Shane Parmar found his passion in CBD. Jessica Brown spoke to him after the launch of his own CBD brand.

When he was in school, Shane Parmar didn’t know what he wanted to do for the rest of his life; he hadn’t quite found his passion. But after college, he started working in sales, and found his forte.

Soon enough, Parmar was earning more than most 19-year-olds he knew, and was even able to buy himself a BMW. Within two years he was working in Geneva at the World Trade Centre. But in 2009 he got into a car crash and his future fell away from him in an instant.

“I lost my speech, my memory, my confidence, I got a stammer – it changed my life,” Parmar says. “I went from a wolf to a lamb.”

“It changed my perspective,” he said. “To have that life at 19, then to be told you can’t have it anymore – it was a hard thing to face.”

“I took it upon myself, I wasn’t calling it quits, I was having everything and more,” he says.

Despite being told he wouldn’t make a full recovery, Parmar says he taught himself to talk again, and to get himself back to place where he could go back to work.

After a recovery that exceeded expectations, Parmar had a brief dalliance working in the world of finance, but then came back to the UK, where he worked a few more sales jobs he didn’t feel were a good fit for him.

Parmar then had an interview with JM Wholesale, the largest vape and CBD wholesaler supplier in the UK.

Shane Parmar

He says this is the most ethical field he has worked in, and truly believes in what he is selling.

“I fell into this by chance. I’m so passionate about helping people – and I have to believe in something to sell it.

“I believe that the marijuana plant has the potential to change the world. It could lead to a completely different world to what we see now.”

“I think hemp and CDB is the only thing that will help to save the UK. Industries have gone and there’s a lot we outsource – we need something to save the UK economically.”

Parmar ’s job is to help build drop-shipping customers be more successful, he says.

“In turn, they can get their products under nose of people I may never get to, which could essentially improve persons quality of life,” he says.

He is currently launching a new business, ONDA CBD for which he makes his own CBD oils, applying what he’s learnt so far working in the industry. ONDA CBD offers four different oils and a range of CBD jellies in quantities of nine, 19 and 29.

“I understand what good quality is, so when I make my oils I try to be extremely high value to people. I don’t think this is something only middle class should be able to afford.”

Parmar also takes his own oil every day, which he says helps assure customers.

“The reason I started making CBD oil was because I was looking at suppliers’ products and the strongest out there was 15 percent. I didn’t want other ingredients in it – I wanted it nice and clean, but I couldn’t find any.”

“And in spite of my brain damage and what doctors said it would do to my brain and recovery, I was smoking marijuana most of my life, and I didn’t feel that everything I was doing was hindered by marijuana,” he says.

Parmar enjoys getting feedback from customers who’ve tried his oils and says it’s overwhelming.

“I want to do as much as I can to help people. The potential for this family of plants is endless – hemp alone has so many properties,” he says.

Parmar also has plans to bring together numerous companies he’s worked with operating in the CBD industry together to work as partners in an alliance.

“Collaborations don’t happen enough,” he says. “Especially among SMEs. People are too concerned about competition, but that doesn’t bother me. We’re all on the same team.”

As well as his own future, Parmar is very confident in the future of drop-shipping.

This is a supply chain management method where, instead of keeping goods in stock, retailers transfer customers’ orders to manufacturers, other retailers, or wholesalers, who ship directly to customers. Parmar calls it a ‘no-brainer’.

“With coronavirus, more people are inclined to try CBD, and online sales went through the roof. In terms of ecommerce, drop-shipping and CBD, corona poured gasoline on a roaring fire.”

Parmar is looking forward to seeing what he can achieve alongside his new alliance of trusted co-workers.

Find Shane’s company on Instagram: @ondacbd and online at: www.ondacbd.com.