Welcome to another episode of the Carbon Life Post.
It has been a long while, but we are back in the mix for 2026.
Just going to give you the block height right now so you can timestamp this.
It is the 16th of Jan, 2026.
Block height is 936904.
So handing over to today's guest, please introduce yourself.
Thanks guys, this is
Faluni Maxwell
footballer, semi-pro footballer
for Killer NFC
and the founder and owner
of ProReady
Thank you for that mate, so
go straight into it, let us know what
Team ProReady is
Yeah, so Team ProReady is
it's an AI
AI platform
and it's a
platform for footballers
that don't
that want to learn more about being a footballer
and helping them navigate through the game.
It's something I created through experiences I had of myself
with things going through with managers and players
and navigating the game, especially non-league,
with how difficult it is.
So I thought I'd make a system to help players
be able to ask questions and get answers
based on real life situations.
And there's no other best way to do it at the moment
with feeding that information through to AI
and having AI to be that kind of tool
to speak to players directly
and give them the answers they need.
Rikid.
So you mentioned AI there.
AI is a big buzzword at the moment.
Did you have background in the digital space?
Were you working with AI beforehand?
Not really, to be fair.
I was always on the computer thing.
as long as we're learning little bits about computing
and I did a bit of that in school.
But really, truly, not really.
I just always loved my computing stuff
and just research and more and more about things
and that's what kind of led me to it.
Great stuff.
So similar to you, I've had a little dabble with AI.
I'm just letting people know that basically
there is no barrier to entry to learn.
You can just go online, play with it,
feed us some prompts and build something
that you're building now.
going back
so you mentioned
you're a baller
right
can you just give us
your journey
from young
to playing football
to now
how to try to help
other young people
yeah
for sure
I played
well I started
playing football
when I was really young
so I was born in Nigeria
came here
when I was about three
and
since young
my parents have always said
I've just loved the game
always had a ball in my hand
always running around
kicking the stone
kicking whatever
wherever I could see really
so obviously when I moved down here
they put me into like
football straight away
I lived in Blackwood Leeds so they put me
to play for Blackwood Leeds football club
just played there for a while
I used to actually
be a goalkeeper
terrible goal
but I had no technical ability
so
I had no technical ability so they slapped me
and I just had to catch the ball and give it to the players
that could play
nothing's really changed much this time I'm actually just passing it to the players that
couldn't play but um yeah it's um it started off there and then it's kind of growing and
getting better as I go on and I just guess I just saw people around me that were doing really well
and I wanted to want to see better than them and I guess that's where I got my little competitive
edge from I just wanted to be better than everyone so from there I caught up with a lot of people my
age from doing my own little stuff I was younger on my own little runs playing in the garden
and thinking, what else can I do to do more than these lot?
Because these lot is, like, they're better than me,
but I reckon I could be better.
What can I do?
And that's why I kind of built that competitive edge
and that hustle mentality, I guess.
But then, yeah, I played there, and then I joined Oxford City
at, I think I was about 10 or 11 or 12.
And then I just kind of played all the way through Oxford City,
went through the JPL, went through the Velocity programme as well.
which was really good, helped me a lot,
kind of seeing a pathway and what I could do
and how I could climb up.
So I did a bit with the 23s.
So I went all the way from the under 12s through the JPL.
I was at 23s at about 17, 18.
And then I was skipper of the 23s at 18, 19.
And then I went on loan to a few non-league teams.
I went to Killerton at first, where I'm at now.
And I went to Tame, did a loan move there.
Got injured in that period, which kept me out for about a year.
It was a crucial year for me as well.
My last year at Velocity, which obviously resulted in me not getting a third year.
But yeah, I ended up just dabbling around non-league.
But yeah, I'm currently at Killerton.
I was at North League prior and I was at Marlow.
It's kind of trying to climb up the leagues now, really.
So it's been a journey through non-league and trying to climb through and make a name for myself.
The team, team pro ready, in my eyes, you mentioned the team that you played for non-league, good standard.
But even myself now, I don't think I can still be a pro.
A lot of young people, ballers, have that ambition to be a pro.
How does your app get them ready for that, to step into a professional game?
yeah so basically what pro ready is and the reason i created is because i had a i've had a few
situations myself with managers and um being a non-league player try to understand the game
and it's one of the hardest things to do you know trying to understand what a manager means or
understand how to get yourself back into the squad why you're left out of the squad and i think so
many people including myself and you probably have as well as i as well making the mistake of
going to things too emotionally, maybe not understanding the game and understanding
how it really is. It's not just about your ability,
it's not just about where you've been prior and I learnt that the
hard way and obviously speaking to people
showed me obviously, okay, this is what
non-league really is and then I just sat and thought to myself, there's a lot of players out there
that still don't understand what these things mean.
I mean, it's not just about, you know, how you play in training,
because sometimes you can train really well and still not get a Smith.
You know, and some of these kind of things really bamboozle players
and it gets you questioning yourself.
And sometimes I'm questioning maybe if the game really is for you.
So what I'd done really was I contacted a lot of players that play in non-league.
Got them, I sent out a lot of forms.
So the players got them to explain situations they'd been through in non-league.
So at the moment, I think I've got 100 plus non-league players that have filled in their forms to give personal experiences they've had within their careers in non-league and some players in a professional game as well.
And experiences that you wouldn't be able to find on Google, you wouldn't be able to find on podcasts, something players don't really want to talk about.
So it was anonymous.
so they put in those experiences and how it made them feel and what managers said to them and things
they wish they could have done better and things they wish they would have known beforehand
so what I did is I gathered all that data and I put it into an AI to no so I gathered all the data
first and I put it all together to have some sort of brain of how non-league really works and how
players can be needed through it so then what I'd done is I was thinking I can't actually
say this all myself because that's too many people that would come up to me and ask questions and I'd
have to go and find out what works best for each person so I thought what can I do that can be
accessible for players to be able to just send it a message and it knows all the data already and
all the things and everything we've learned all these different personal experiences for players
to just get a response so then I thought okay perfect what we could do we could put that data
into one make it into one big brain put it into AI And that where where team ProReady kind of came alive where now players have the ability to ask a question with the AI
that now knows the knowledge of 100 plus personal experiences
of players that have gone through certain things
and are willing to open up and say the real nitty gritties
about non-league and about the professional game.
And now ProReady is able to answer those questions on cue.
first it understands your your situation it understands your you know it gets to know you
personally as well it understands the situation it gets to know you personally as well first what
kind of person you are and then it will give you the feedback needed for your situation also on top
of the realistic uh factors of the game um and it'll let you know what to do when to do it and
what messages to kind of send to a manager if you're unsure if you don't know what to do really
so yeah it's like an agent slash mentor slash knowledge tool to tell players navigate through
their careers really so that's that's why that's what that's what it is you made a great point
there about the data set feeding the information into the AI program a lot of people I think they
think AI is a center of being that just knows everything no you have to give it information
And the fact that you saw out players that play non-league, professionals, some of them probably done both, you've got a good data set to pull from to join someone that asks a question.
It's not just a random answer that AI agent has just taken from Google. It's taken from players that have been in that situation.
and you mentioned as well myself being in situations i think every single player has
been in a team and have found themselves out found themselves out of favor and probably made the wrong
decision um at the wrong time but having that that that agent or that ai that you can put information
in and get advice back not give you necessarily the correct answer but will give you some advice
that you can think about rather than just making a decision off the cuff
that could potentially cost you getting back into the team,
cost you a relationship with a manager or a teammate.
So, yeah, advice I would give and advice that you're probably all giving
is don't make rash decisions, right?
Exactly that. Exactly that.
And I think that's what ProReady would be good for and it is good for.
And as I thought and I looked as well and I looked deep into it
to see if there was anything like this.
I was wondering why isn't there anything like this to help players to actually understand them
and it is growing the knowledge gets smarter and smarter every time every time someone uses it we
do pull through some of that data anonymously and you know fill in the brain of the AI even more so
what it is it will become such a strong tool to help players really navigate their careers
so the data is continuing to grow we're still reaching out to players still getting more data
more information, more personal
situations to really make it
be a perfect guide and a brilliant guide for players
to really be able to navigate their careers perfectly
because I think even for myself
like, you know
I feel like if I would have known some of these things
and learnt some of these things earlier, I would have been in the
better situation than I am now, but now
I actually have the ability to help
players know these things
beforehand and
you know, they don't have to go through some of the
things we probably both went through as players
so yeah
I'm going to bring up a name now
a manager who you've played under
and I played with many years ago
a comment he made I tell people all the time
so Mark Bartley
manager at Marlow
and he once said to me
I've got players that want to be pros
they tell me they want to be pros
we train twice a week, we play once at the weekend
but they're not doing anything outside of that
pro footballers are
training five maybe six times a week
two games a week
they're not doing more than the pros so they cannot be better than a pro footballer so you
have to be doing more and it's a difficult situation to come to terms with because you're
then telling young people you have to have a job possibly and be training and recovering
to be better than a pro footballer now there are cases where you may get away with doing less and
making it you might just have that outstanding ability but to be as you say pro ready you have
to be doing as much as or more than what a pro is doing there are professionals probably aren't doing
the most they are doing minimal training they're not doing extra over but if you are
a non-league footballer or semi-pro footballer and you're doing the most you are training if you can
once a day maybe twice a day if you can on an off day doing your recovery properly eating
eating well, drinking well, you set yourselves up for that better opportunity to then be
the best that you can be, but also then be spotted.
Now, the information that your agent or the AI is given, does that make part of it to
be someone who's named the Naver's Team Pro Ready?
Is the information being fed through the lifestyle, basically, that they have to live?
Definitely.
So it's obviously filled in not just of manager communication and the realities of non-league.
It also gives players, if a player was to ask about what more they could do in a week,
it would ask what their weekly schedule is like and it will give them a week plan
on how to then train as a professional footballer as well
to make sure they don't strain themselves too much or ask them what job they do.
and it kind of knows the basis of how straining that job is
and it gives them the best ways to plan their weeks
on then trying to train as much as a professional footballer
but also not burning out.
That's an important thing in the league.
A lot of us players tend to train a lot and then burn out
and then not realise that the most crucial day of the week
is the match day.
So, yeah, what Pro Ready does, it helps you then, you know,
schedule your week around
what job you do
and it helps you actually
become pro ready
it does the same with the nutrition as well
it helps players
understand what kind of
foods to eat in a week
it actually knows all the shops as an LD
knows the prices
and can get you sorting that out
also affordably for yourself as well
that's another thing in non-league
obviously you don't get paid the big bucks the professionals do
but pro ready
there to help you um live within your means and guide you to be pro ready interesting i like the
fact that it takes into account your your job role as well so thinking back to when i started
off as a trainee carpenter i was quite active on site up and down scaffolders i used to work with
scaffolders used to play football they were reasonably fit and then thinking as i progressed
became a site manager a bit less active in the office my training didn't change much like that
is my body shape.
And that's something that I probably didn't think of too much at the time.
Obviously, looking back, it obviously makes sense.
But, yeah, taking into account your job role
and then applying training tends to suit that.
And obviously nutrition, that's very good.
Yeah.
Something I've made sure to take into account
is it is about becoming pretty ready.
So, yeah.
So in terms of players that are used at the moment,
You mentioned that obviously it's for people to be team pro-A, professional footballers that are using it.
Can you name them, name drop?
If they wouldn't mind.
Yeah, so we've got a few.
At the moment, we've got Jaden Carbone.
He's one of the players I've known for a while.
He's someone that's actively made it through non-league.
He started off with me actually out of the city.
definitely an inspiration to a lot of players
to keep going and he's ticked off
and he learned a lot
learning through the game and he
tells me Pro Ready is something that helps him
currently, he uses
we've got Tanto Laffer
who plays at Stockport
at the moment, he's in League One
he another player that tapped into Pro Ready and he said it something that actually helps him with the game And he surprised that a lot of players haven tapped into already
As it would be definitely really good for a lot of the younger players as well.
A few other non-league players.
You've got Latour Hunt for you.
He was at Reading.
He played England under-15s.
And he's coming to Oxford City.
Same with Ewan Clarke as well.
both Oxford City
and Clark was also
a professional
Bristol City as well
you know
they double-dabbled
around on the
part of Bath City
as well
but yeah
we've got a few
players
with some
clubs behind them
that have tapped
in and actively
using
the programme
some good names
there
so when did you
actually launch
have you got a
date
so I launched
on the
1st
of
December
2025
so it's only
a few months old but
yeah. At that time I think
Jaden was already
some professional form so what you're
looking for now right is a non-declare
that uses your app
that makes it through to the ranks as a pro right
to be your next poster boy
definitely
yeah
for sure
people that
want to get involved how can they
find you
how can they use the app
So, literally, you can go on my Instagram, it's teamproready,
or literally search on your web browser, proready.org.
And, yes, literally all there, the website's there, the sign-up's there,
and we can get you straight in and learn about what you can do
to really take your level to the next level, really.
And it is a bridge between players, managers, and progress.
I'm going to mention another manager now
one that we've both played under
he's been in the game a long time
Mike Ford
and I'm going to use one of his quotes
practice makes permanent
which means nobody is ever perfect
in terms of that with your app
how often would someone need to use it
would you recommend
or is it a case of
the app will be checking with you
and send you prompts
what would you advise for people that are using it?
So with that app, I'd say it's a consistent program, really.
If you always learn in a non-league, you'll always be confused.
One minute you're playing and one minute you're not.
There's always different kinds of situations that happen in the game.
So with ProReady, it's just that tool and it's always there ready for you to use on deployment.
So, yeah, I think it's something that you can always learn from.
You never know too much.
and with ProReady it's something that
it's learned from over 100 players already
so the data and the information
it knows is gathered from a lot
of players already so you're not just learning
from one AI, you're learning from
Tans, you're learning from the Jadens, you're learning
from the Ewing, you're learning from the
Trails, so there's a lot of
people you're learning from so it's a continuous learning
and it's a continuous more understanding the games
and asking the questions of what
you can do better so I think it's
a thing I reckon
you can use and use and use it
never learned too much.
Early on in the conversation,
you mentioned
taking the emotion out of it, right?
So I've been on both sides,
playing, coaching,
maybe one day in the future
you'll be on the other side,
putting me.
We are only human, right?
Players are managers, coaches.
We make decisions
based on the knowledge we have.
In the space,
I mean, at the moment,
I say to people,
as I'm saying,
the cat can't dismiss the internet,
basically,
meaning,
we know what the internet is but if a cat was sat on your lap right now it would have no idea what
the internet is but it can't dismiss the internet so when people have their own opinions and thoughts
you cannot dismiss it you can try and understand how they got that reasoning and then bringing it
back to football we witness and i've witnessed and we will continue to witness some decisions
that players and managers make that you think what the hell are they thinking but in that moment in
time whatever's ever ever has happened in their life in that week on that day in that game they
have made that decision now no one is ever going to make the right decision 100% of the time we
always hope that we try and make the better or the best decision now that being said don't take
things to heart what I want to try and get the point across I've been in situations where I've
looked at, managed and thought, is this an attack on me?
Then being on the other side and having conversations with players
and realising sometimes it's nothing to do with that player at all.
Sometimes it's to do what we believe or what the coach believes is best for the team
or best for the outcome, depending on player positioning, player selection.
And as a player, you might be sitting on a bench.
I've been there many times thinking, he's not better than me.
but you don't know what's going on in the coach's mind and again management might be
the game ahead or two games ahead of the manager's thinking of so in terms of sticking it out if you
are consistently performing and being pro ready having that professional mindset you then go to
team pro ready ask the question what should i do have a bit of advice but don't make rash decisions
in terms of not warming up,
not doing the runs afterwards,
not putting the kit away,
not staying in the clubroom afterwards,
not saying goodbye.
Those things you may think,
oh, that's me showing that I'm not happy.
But it shows you're not being professional.
You continue to be professional
and show that you're not happy.
You can be running,
doing the runs after the game
with a stern face.
I do the runs because it's to your benefit.
You can be professional.
or you can put the kit away,
you can go to a club afterwards.
You haven't got to be cheery and happy,
but be there, be present,
show that you're still part of the squad.
And these are things that you learn
and still learn and now on the other side.
Now, for players that are younger coming through,
they can not necessarily understand this right away,
but have that point of reference
that they can go to and ask the question,
what would you advise?
What do you think I should do here?
And then have advice from tens of hundreds of players
that have been in that situation,
you will get an answer that you can consider.
But isn't going to be, don't turn up.
Don't answer the manager's call.
Ignore the manager.
Yeah, don't answer any calls.
Don't respond to anything.
Don't turn up to training.
That's not going to help you in any walk of life,
but especially football.
Exactly.
exactly that
what were you going to say?
no I said yeah no exactly that
and I think that's definitely
things that I will say
some of the anonymous players that I've put on there
have said the mistakes they've made
where they've done those
kind of things and they've made sure to put it in
capital letters that that's not what you should
do and Pro Ready's, the Pro Line
AI is definitely make sure
to make sure to
entire players do the opposite and you know it gives them more respectful ways to um to approach
situations and not situations and you know make you think oh yeah I'm happy to just sit on the
bench forever and just be a squad player but ways to address situations correctly because we know
every player wants to play but there's ways you go about it and you know Pro Red East there to
guide them through that as you've said you know all these little nitty gritties that you know we
shouldn't do as a young player I think I've done as well um you know I can give you an example I was
my first loan at um Killerton actually um I wasn't starting and the guy that started over me I honestly
was thinking why is he starting over me but the manager had his reason so I was having a little
huff and puff on the side and the manager's basically gone up to me all right come on then
and you're talking, come on.
I've come on and the winger has absolutely sent me,
so badly, sent me really bad.
And he's got a nice little cross in as well.
It was so embarrassing.
And after that I didn start another game after that But I thought I was really was really big bollocks but you know you learn quickly that sometimes you just gotta humble yourself and don complain and I was a young player
as well but you know if I would have
had something like already at that time
to tell me about it I would have done a lot better
but yeah
beforehand I was like I can't believe I'm not playing
you know when the squad list is sent out
and your name's at the bottom you're like yeah
it's going to be me at the bottom at the bench today
but yeah
I wish I just had something like that there to guide me.
I would have made better decisions.
And maybe if I would have played,
if I didn't do that,
I would have played more games.
And, you know, if, buts and maybes really,
but that's just how the game is.
And make sure Pro Ready knows how to guide players correctly.
Excellent.
I'm going to quote Mark Fuggin.
One of our players during a team review said
he did something during the season,
into the season.
And here's a comment.
Well, I can't ask for much more.
and Mike Forrest's comments were you effing well can by the way and I've lived off that
so any players listening right now no matter how much you think you're doing
if you think you're doing enough I can tell you not even as a retired footballer now I'm looking
back there were times where I thought yeah I'm doing my gym sessions nutrition's on point but
there's always more you could be doing and not saying you have to go and smash 5k's every day
but everything in your routine your habits are they good habits and i'm not saying you have to
live like a monk but more that you commit to something and create in those good habits that
lifestyle and maintain it the better opportunity you will have and there's something called
75 hard um if you're listening i'd suggest just taking out taking a listen to it with a podcast
and then 75 days that you can commit to working to better yourself mindset and body
you mentioned jayden earlier if you're not if you listen to that he's my son and i said to him
when he did it himself if someone said to you you had to do 75 hard continuously for a chance to be
a pro would you do it and the answer is yes of course but there's no guarantee now he didn't live
75 hard daily for those years but he had that 75 hard mindset putting yourselves in difficult
situation making your lifestyle not comfortable so making it hard but making tasks that you can
complete and maintain to create a better lifestyle which he's doing and done for himself
me looking back I realized I wasn't committed enough daily discipline to be a pro some people
have made a pro and not had a discipline but that's just luck of the draw but if you want to
be within the best chance give yourself the best opportunity then create that consistency create
that discipline create those habits that are going to let you be the best version of yourself
allowing yourself to have them down those down days but even when days aren't the best you can
still do something positively right it's raining you might not get the best time for your run you
might not feel up to it might be you feel ill but you can still do something to better yourself daily
with your team
program
having that
as a go-to
something that
you could
refer to
daily
is just
going to
help players
massively
exactly
and remember
it's shorter
to just not
make it like
a motivation
tool
a tool that
players
just say
yeah go on
keep going
mate
yeah just
keep doing what you're doing it it tells you the realities and it says you tell it what you've done
this week it'll tell you straight off the bat don't think you're doing enough think you might
need to add this or you might need to remove that or you need to do this so it really does have that
hustle mentality and I guess I wanted it to be as much of a version of I don't know that I wish I
had and because I think football people that play football and young people that play football
and people that even have played football already
know that the game isn't soft and isn't nice
and it isn't all rosy.
For some people it is, definitely,
if you get the greatest luck.
But most of the time it's you have to hustle through
and you have to be quiet when you want to just shout
and you have to, you know, coast through.
And ProReady really does tell players the reality
and it doesn't just give you that motivation.
It tells you what you really need to do.
And it will really test you as well
to see how much you really want it
with the kind of questions it will ask you
and the kind of situations it will put you in.
But yeah, that's definitely what made sure
to make it have that mentality.
And I think I wanted it to be a kind of version
that I wish I had and a lot of friends around me
wish they could have had as well.
Not just yes men and people that say,
yeah, go on, do this, do that.
It tells the realities and that's what's needed.
model player
who in the modern game
would Team Pro Ready say you have to be like
or would you have to live their lifestyle
say that again
Team Pro Ready
you ask a question
who is the best role model out there right now
in a professional game who Team Pro Ready
would say you need to be like to train like
it would probably say
Ronaldo you know
I'm pretty sure
or it would probably say something like
you know, shouldn't compare yourself
to other players and be the best player you can
be for yourself
I think that's probably the answer it would give actually
it probably wouldn't advise you to try to be like
someone else because they're completely different
people to who you are
so it would probably tell you to
focus on what you can do
and try to be
the best player
you can be and refine yourself
I think that's the answer
it would give actually
but with a Ronaldo
mindset right
believe in
believe in in yourself
and being disciplined
because that
is an elite mindset
when I ask a question
that's the player I had in mind
the most people
would have in mind
yeah
might have to change that actually
don't want it to be too cliche
so I'm going to
ask the final question
that I've asked
every guest
on the Cumberland Live Pod
you'll have a time machine
you enter it, you go back in time
you meet yourself at the school gate
to leave a school at 16, what one bit of advice
would you give yourself?
What a question that is
Damn, how old am I?
16
roughly when you're 16
16
I would say
be more patient
and start rushing yourself
be more patient
start rushing yourself
yeah
that would be what I'd say
and I'll make sure to grab my head as well
like really shake it and scream
me in my face
no contact
no aggression towards
your younger self
very stern word
as I would say now have a low
time preference
don't expect everything
to come straight away
I think that's the difficulty I had
working with some players
of late
they played one game
and wanted to move on to the first team
or came off the bench for one game
Mark Dunne-Wright
and wanted to start the next game
that's not how life works
that's definitely not how football works
you need to be consistent
and then when you get the opportunity
can you consistently put that
that effort in.
Pulumi,
thank you very much
for your time.
Listeners,
go and follow
TeamProReady.
Follow Pulumi.
I'll be following
your journey
I've done for a while.
Hopefully,
using the TeamProReady app,
we'll see you
club down the leagues.
Definitely.
And then,
hopefully,
you're officially signed
for Bitcoin Ballers Academy
so that we can announce that.
Yeah.
Get that in the line, man.
Line, man.
all right nice well thank you for your time and um i'll catch up with you soon take care
cheers