Overcoming Struggles & Finding Purpose: Claudine McDaniel’s Journey To Faith & Impact (Inspirational)

Feeling lost in your struggles? Wondering if you’ll ever break free from the challenges life keeps throwing at you? What if your pain was actually preparing you for something greater?

Many people feel stuck, overwhelmed by financial struggles, emotional wounds, and life’s unexpected setbacks. But what if you could turn those struggles into purpose? Claudine McDaniel went from a childhood of pain in Togo, Africa, to finding faith, overcoming a language barrier in the U.S., and launching a nonprofit that has impacted thousands. Claudine immigrated to the U.S. with only $13 and has dedicated her life to serving Jesus and empowering people. This episode is for anyone who needs hope, direction, and a reason to keep pushing forward.

-How faith and perseverance can turn struggles into steppingstones.
-Why taking action—despite fear—can unlock your purpose and impact others.
-Practical steps to overcoming obstacles and creating a life of meaning.

Your breakthrough is waiting! Tune in now and discover how to transform your pain into purpose and impact lives beyond your own.

Claudine McDaniel founded Beyond Conquerors, Inc., a nonprofit providing education, training, and employment opportunities.

Claudine's Contact info:

Email: Info@beyondconquerors.com

Website: https://beyondconquerors.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondconquerorsministr

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWcO3BMvjWA3oiofFAMRRgg/videos

Transcript

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Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Claudine McDaniel. Claudine is an inspirational speaker and the founder of Beyond Conquerors Incorporated. So Claudine, can you share a little bit about your personal story and where Oh, yes. So I actually, I was born in Africa, Togo, and my, you know, and I was born in a very dysfunctional family, you know, and actually my father had two wives, my stepmother, and then my mother. And growing up, there was so much tension in the house. And then I was very sick. very anxious growing up and all these negativities and I was always sick and my mother spent all of her money. But then something very incredible happened to me when I was in high school. I went to high school and one day there were two ladies, two girls of my age, they just walked up to me And they talked to me about Jesus. They said to me, if I knew Jesus, I said, yes, I knew Jesus. And they said, do you know him as your personal savior? And then that was when I just froze. And they said all the things that they said, and they told me to receive Christ. And I received Christ. From there, I just went to all the meetings. I went to church. I went to the Bible study. I went to all the prayer, the prayer meetings that they had at that time. And something incredible happened. Little by little, the sickness started to disappearing, you know, like the way I used to be sick. Somehow it just starts disappearing little by little. And my mother, who was struggling with money to do this and do that at that point, at that time, also helped. Actually, when I received Christ, I shared that with her. And then she also received Christ, and all my siblings received Christ. And from there, things were going better and better. And my mother, she, her business also started to grow me. And from there, I realized that God is the father, my father that I needed. Because at that time, like I said, my father, you know, he didn't give us the value of being like, he talked it down on us because the other wife was doing all these things, lying to him and all of those things. So at some point I was able to graduate from high school and I came into the United States. Long story short, I came into the United States and right here, I realized that I left everything that I was familiar with to come to two steps into unfamiliar, because I did not speak the English. I spoke French. And faced with the language barrier, I decided to go to school. So I went to school for seven years to get to learn English, as well as to graduate with my bachelor's degree. So with my bachelor's degree, God helped me to find a good job. And I was working in a company, a federal company. My assignment was in United States Department of Agriculture. That was where I went to work every, every morning. So with everything that God did for me, I decided to put that in a book. So I wrote my book, my first book, and that book, the name is More Than Conquerors, From Struggles to Forgiveness, From Forgiveness to Blessings. So with that book, I kept on praying to God. I said, Father, you have helped me this far, and now I want to have a business because I learned the English and then now I have my career in accounting. So I went to the father, I have been praying, but then one day he spoke to me, start a nonprofit. I'm like, how can I start a nonprofit? I don't know anything about nonprofits. And also I want to make money so I can still, you know, help other people. I want to make money. It makes sense to me personally that to start a profit business, but it wasn't what the Lord said. So I kept that in my mind. I'm like, okay, so provide, show me, because I had no idea where to start. who to talk to, who could help me and all of those things. Please help me father. And surprisingly, one morning I went to work and then I was actually getting into the department. Then I saw this guy and I asked him, somehow I just decided to ask him because we used to greet each other when we see each other in the hall and things like that. So I asked him if he knew anyone who could help me register a nonprofit. And then he was like, yes, I knew I can help you. I can provide you with their contact information. So you see, one thing that I have noticed in life is that When we pray to the Lord to help us, the Lord helps us, but we need to be willing to do what he's saying to us. Willingness is something that is very, very important. You see, I have realized that with my work with the Lord, that the Lord, for the manifestation to happen, The divinity, God is divine. The divinity works with the humanity to make this happen. So, but if we say, no, oh, like you, God talk to me or a good idea comes. And then I said, no, I cannot do it. I don't think today I will be able to have this ministry, which is helping many, many people. It hasn't been easy. To be honest, it hasn't been easy. So from there, as I created the Beyond Conquerors ministry, and we have been helping people in our community. Right now, we feed more than 50 families every Friday. And ever since we have this organization, we have fed more than 9,000. We have provided 9,000 meals. And we have also helped in shelters. So I just want to encourage anyone who has a dream inside of her or him. Do never give up. Never give up on your dream. So that dream that you have inside of you is God, Almighty God, that puts that dream there. And you must start your work. When you start your work, it might be difficult for you. So one other thing that I want to say is that we all started life expecting to reach our goals and our destinies, but then something comes along the way to interrupt our work, to interrupt the plan that we have, to interrupt that project that we are doing, to interrupt that business that we have decided to start. But I want to encourage you to never give up. So when the disappointment, when the interruption happens, most of the time we feel disappointed. We feel betrayed. We feel discouraged. We feel depressed. We sometimes, we feel like we lose hope. And most of the time we feel emotionally wounded. We feel like we are emotionally wounded. And sometimes we even feel like God is not with us. So I'm saying all of this to say that to start Beyond Conquerors has not been easy. So anyone, if you have a plan, continue no matter what. So my dear friends that are watching us today, I want to tell you that you are more than a conqueror. So what are you? What has interrupted your plan? Is it domestic violence? Is it financial hardship? Is it lack of affordable housing? Is it mental health? divorce, natural disaster, disability, what has interrupted your plan? Get back up again. I want to encourage you to get back up again and start chasing after your dreams. So that's what I have for you. I want to encourage you. And that's what Beyond Conqueror is about. it has been formed from personal experiences. So one of the things that I said was that we feel disappointed. It hasn't been easy. So when I said that, you know, from all the pain that I went through in life, I have decided to put all of those things in a course in a program where people can go through. So we have, at Beyond Conquerors, we have the Life Wow program, which I will be talking to Awesome. Yeah, Beyond Conquerors is so powerful. It's so powerful. So, Kalyan, when did you realize that you were called Oh, wow. That's a very good question. So I said before that In my prayer place, I decided, in my prayer place, I heard the Lord telling me to start nonprofit. That's where I started Beyond Conquerors. So I started, I did not know exactly what to do. Through my book, I was preaching. I was actually speaking in shelters. I was speaking in churches and nursing homes. But then one day I went to this conference and I met this lady and she is the one, she talked about talents, your God-given talents. So when she talked about that, it just, I don't know, it was something that, stayed with me. So after the meeting, I approached the lady and I asked her, how can she help me to find my talent, the God-given talent in me? So I took the course with her and the result was so mind-blowing. And that was from that moment, that I realized that I'm supposed to serve. I'm supposed to help people. And that's my natural talent. That's what comes naturally for me. So from that point, I knew exactly what to do with Beyond Conquerors, how to serve the people. So I hope I answered that Yes, and you did. But you're very strong on faith. And I think that's really important, because it plays a major role in your work with God and things like that. Because when he calls us to do things, a lot of times we don't see We have to walk into it anyway, trusting that he's going to make a way for us. So how did your faith help you through your own battles? Oh, yes. Without the Lord, I can't do anything. You know, just like you said, sometimes when we have the dream, the idea comes, but when we see that, sometimes we are fearful to walk into it. You see, we are fearful because seeing what God has revealed to us or seeing what we want to do, from our side, it seems so big. And sometimes we feel like we don't know what people are going to think about us. I don't know if I have the strength to do that. I don't know if I can be able to do it correctly. You know, because of all of those things, we stay back. But the thing is that, again, I spoke about willingness. So when we are willing, and then we have the Lord, we know that the Lord is the one who has our back. He backs us up. No matter how big the giant in front of us seems, no matter how big that thing seems, but if we go with the Lord, he's going to help us conquer. He's going to help us get there. He's going to help us do the impossible. Because we are not alone. We are with the Lord Almighty. That's why we need to believe in Him. When we believe in Him, we do all things through Him. We do all things through His power. It's not us now who are working. It's not us now who are moving, but the Lord is moving to us. So that's how me personally, I go to the Lord. I ask Him. Sometimes He seems quiet, but I keep on asking Him. I keep on staying with Him. Even if they seem tough, even if I don't see my way out, I just keep staying with the Lord because I know somehow he's going to come through for me. I'm telling you, my brothers and sisters and everybody who is looking at or watching or listening to us today. For me to start the Uncle Curious was not easy, but then for me to start the program, Life Well Program, that program was not easy at all either. So what I did, kept on working on it, kept on working on it. But then one day, I had a dream. I was pregnant. So I woke up. I'm like, father, am I going to have another child? But then in the middle of the day, that day, the spirit of the Lord spoke to me that you are pregnant. You are pregnant. I won't go into the details right now. But then I kept working on the projects, working and working on it. So, like a year later, the spirit of the Lord came back and told me that I gave birth. Then I'm like, Father, what is it? So then he told me, there is the LifeWOW program. You know what? It was when, after we put the program together, And then the government, our local government helped us to help the people. They actually provide, we won a grant so that we can help the people go through the program. So that was when I realized that I gave birth to what was inside of me. my dear friend, the sisters and brothers, anyone who is listening to us. That's why I started this podcast saying, don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. And most of the time, when you have a dream inside of you, one of the things that the enemy does is that he comes and then attacks your finances. He comes and attacks your resources, things that may help you get there, but stay with the Lord and then don't ever give up because you are more than a conqueror. With the Lord, you can do all things. For a moment, it might seem like the enemy is having the victory, but the Lord has the final say in your life. The Lord has the final say for that project. The Lord has the final say for that business that he has put inside of you. You will give birth. You will give birth. You will come to, you will make it happen in the name of Jesus. I hope I answered that question. Yes, yes. That was so powerful. That was so powerful. So Claudine, what kind of transformation have you seen in lives that you have helped? Yes, people who come to us, for example, people who went through divorce, disappointment, struggle, financial struggle, and they hurt emotionally. So when the people come to us, one of the things that we provide for them is we help them to find their joy again by providing them emotional healing course. What that course does is that it helps them to develop the tools that they need in order to continue their lives. It helps them to restore, to get their joy back, and to also move past the past pain, you see? So when they go through that course, Then they come to the course that we have here is a Strength Finder course. The Strength Finder course, that course is a coaching actually. That helps them to develop, to find their God-given talent inside of them. So when they find their God-given talent, what that does, is that it helps them to focus on their strength in order to do what God wants them to do in this earth without wasting their time, so going left and right. So from there, we have basic courses, the basic courses that can help them to have, for example, we have computer skill courses, we have problem-solving courses. We have critical thinking, time management, and all of these courses. We have more than 3,000 courses that they can choose from. After that, they can go on and get certified in anything that they want. So like cybersecurity, nursing assistants, business analysis, and bookkeeping, accounting, all of these things, more than 3,000 certification they can get. So when they get that, after that, they can also go, we have another course that can help them, assist them in job placement. So when they get that, then we help them, you know, write their resume and then coach them in how to help them with their LinkedIn profile and all of that so they can find a job, see? So, but the program is not only for people who are looking for a job. This program is for anyone to transform anyone's life. You see, for example, when COVID-19 came, it hit everybody, right? Everybody was emotionally wounded, you know, because you cannot touch your friend. You cannot go see your friend. You can do this and that. That affected us, and many people lost their loved ones as well. So, for example, the emotional healing course anyone can take that. And also anyone can take the course to find the God-given talent. So from there, anyone can enhance their career as well. It doesn't matter if you have a career now or not. So you can come to us, you take courses to enhance your career. So that's how We have been impacting the people to transform their lives so they can go after their Man, that's what a mighty work. What a mighty work. So They can go to our website, www.beyondconquerors.org. They can also find us on YouTube, Beyond Conquerors Ministry. They can also find us on Instagram and Facebook. So we encourage you to donate to this ministry. This ministry, we started this ministry and only God, by the grace of God, we are still here. By the grace of God only we are still here. So if God put it upon your heart, put it upon you to help us, don't hesitate. You are investing in a good ground because we are doing what the Lord tells us to do. You can go to our website to donate. And God bless you in advance for your support. If you want to take the course, the program, you want to go through the program, you go on our website. Once you are there, you will see life. Wow. Program. Life. Wow. Program. That program you opt in, you fill out the form, and then we will get back to you as soon as Awesome. So finally, Claudine, I'm gonna ask you a question. If you had one message of encouragement to someone listening that's going through something or battling I would say, don't give up. I would say, don't give up. And also hold on to the Lord. Never give up on your dreams, no matter how it looks like right now. No matter how that situation looks like, Don't give up. You and God, you partnering with God, you can do amazing things. You can get back up again. Don't think that you are in a dark place or a low place. Even if you are in a low place right now, God is with you in that low place and he's going to get you back. You're going to get back up. He's going to make sure, just hold on to the Lord. Hold on to him and he's going to make sure that you get back up again. But you need to do your part. You need to do your part. You have a responsibility in this. So your responsibility is keep on doing what you need to do every day. That's your responsibility. And then you're going to make it. I guarantee you, you are going to make it because you, and the Lord, you are the Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So one Yes. So to connect with me, you go to my website and then fill out the form there, and then we will stay in touch. That's one way you can connect with me. And the second way is that you can So, subscribe to our YouTube channel and then follow us Awesome. Claudia McDaniel, thank you so much. This has Yes. And also, if you want to send us an email, you can email info at beyondconquerors, info at beyondconquerors, and then we will get back to you so quickly. Oh, I almost forgot. We have a meeting every, every Thursday from seven to eight o'clock. That's how you can meet with me. And if you have any questions, we can answer all your questions during that meeting. So it's a seven o'clock Eastern time to eight o'clock. Well, go on the website and fill out the form and then we will send you the link to join the meeting every Well Claudia, thank you so much for stopping by and Thank you so much. Thank you so much Reginald for having me on the podcast and I thank you so much for all the hard work that you have been doing. helping the people, transforming lives as well. So thank you so much for doing that Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed listening to Real Talk with Reginald D, please rate and review us on Apple