An Immigrant's Blueprint for Success - April Wu

 In this episode, hosts Lala and Brian are joined by their brilliant friend and business partner, April Wu, founder of InSphere Consulting. April shares her transformative journey from navigating strict cultural expectations and career burnout to finding her voice and launching her own company. She opens up about the immense pressure of a score-based definition of success she experienced growing up in China and how that mindset followed her to the United States.

April reveals how a near-breaking point in a high-pressure corporate job became the catalyst for her to redefine success on her own terms. This raw and honest conversation explores the importance of self-trust, honoring your ambition, and making your own path. It’s a powerful story of survival, hope, and discovering that the most important blueprint is the one you create for yourself. 

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Transcript

Everything's Not Black & White

An Immigrant's Blueprint for Success - April Wu

Episode Transcript

Intro Announcement: Welcome to Everything's Not Black and White with your hosts, Lala and Brian.

Lala: Hey everybody, welcome to today's episode. We are so excited! This episode is definitely one that's near and dear to my heart.

We are joined by my dear friend and brilliant business partner, April Wu, founder of InSphere Consulting and someone whose journey is nothing short of transformative. April's story is about more than success—it's about survival, self-trust, and stepping into a life she wasn't taught about growing up. From navigating strict cultural expectations and career burnout to reclaiming her voice and launching her own company, this conversation is rich with wisdom, honesty, and hope.

So whether you're rethinking your definition of success or learning how to honor the ambition you've been taught to hide, this episode is for you. Let's get into it.

Welcome, April, to the podcast!

Brian: Welcome, April.

April: Thank you, Lala and Brian, for having me!

Lala: We are so excited to have you here and to share a bit of your story with our listeners.

Let's start at the beginning. You were given a specific blueprint when you were growing up. Can you talk about the path you started following as a child in China and what messages around success you first learned?

April: Growing up in China, it’s a very common Asian cultural environment. Everything revolves around good grades and academic rankings.

This is something that probably wouldn't happen in the United States, but for every single quiz and exam, the teacher would announce your name and your exact test score out loud in front of the entire class before you walked up to get your paper back!

For major midterm and final exams, they would publicly post a complete rank list. Everyone had their name listed alongside their exact rank in the classroom and their rank across the entire school grade—from top to bottom, #1 to the very last student.

Lala: That is a massive amount of pressure! Everyone can see where you stand.

April: Exactly. Everyone is driven with competition in mind, so the definition of success was made very clear. I wouldn't say it was the right way to think, but everyone was wired to believe that a high test score was the ultimate measure of worth. It's almost like money in a bank account today—a single number that defines how successful you are.

Lala: What did that environment do to you emotionally and mentally growing up?

April: When you're young and living in that environment, you don't have the awareness that things could be different. Everyone around you is doing the exact same thing, so you assume that's just how life is supposed to be.

Your entire focus becomes getting that score—reading textbooks, solving math problems late into the night, and pushing yourself toward that defined success. You don't even develop feelings or an emotional vocabulary for it because no one teaches you to name your emotions or pay attention to mental health. That wasn't valued or discussed. You suppress your feelings to focus on the goal. Every cell in your body, every meal you eat, and all the energy you produce is directed toward getting a good score. That was the only thing that mattered.

Lala: How long did you stay in China before coming to the United States?

April: I moved to the U.S. in 2011 when I was 21 years old. I attended a university in China for two years before transferring to the University of Wisconsin.

Lala: How did your parents feel about you coming to the U.S.?

April: They were very supportive. In their eyes, studying abroad was another component of that same blueprint for success. They believed that having an American university degree would either give me a better chance at a high-paying job if I returned to China, or allow me to establish myself in a more advanced country. They felt like they were investing in my future success, and they generously paid for my tuition, for which I'm deeply grateful.

Lala: How did the University of Wisconsin get on your radar all the way from China?

April: The university I attended in China had a cooperative exchange program with Missouri State University, where American professors came to China to teach courses in English. One of the academic advisors I spoke with—who was originally from Illinois—recommended several top-ranked Midwest public universities that made financial sense for international tuition. I applied to Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and chose Wisconsin based on his recommendation.

Lala: Did you know English well before arriving?

April: Yes, English education starts very early in China. My parents even enrolled me in an English-teaching program before elementary school!

Lala: I wish we emphasized multilingual education earlier in the U.S. school system. We live in such a global economy now.

Once you graduated from Wisconsin with your degree in accounting, how did you land your first role?

April: I was in the Master of Accountancy program at the Wisconsin School of Business. They held career fairs, networking events, and mock interviews with major CPA firms and banks.

In business school, everyone talked about landing a role at one of the "Big Four" accounting firms—Deloitte, PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), EY (Ernst & Young), and KPMG—as the new ultimate definition of success.

I initially struggled during my formal job interviews. However, an accounting professor for whom I worked as a Teaching Assistant had strong research relationships with Deloitte. She reached out directly to their recruiters, told them I was one of her top students, and recommended me. That connection landed me my first full-time role at Deloitte.

Lala: It sounds like you had great mentors and advocates advocating for you along the way!

When you first arrived in the U.S. alone as an international student, did you feel homesick or lonely?

April: Because I was so goal-oriented, I focused strictly on action items rather than dwelling on my feelings. Before arriving, I connected online with three other international students, and we rented an apartment together in Madison. Having roommates and navigating the new campus environment kept me busy and excited. There were definitely homesick moments, but I would let myself process them briefy, feel cleansed, and then refocus on my goals.

Lala: What was your experience like working for a Big Four firm like Deloitte?

April: Honestly, I personally wasn't successful at Deloitte, for many reasons. I had no mentor within the corporate structure, and I was navigating American corporate culture, Big Four expectations, and Midwest workplace dynamics all at once.

Back in school, people said, "In the Big Four, you just have to work overtime." So I assumed that as long as I put in long hours, success would follow. But working endless overtime damaged my physical health and created immense stress. I kept blaming myself for "not being cut out for it" and kept pushing harder to force myself to fit the mold.

I didn't realize back then that working longer hours isn't what makes you successful. I should have focused on upward management, leveraging coaching, and aligning my work with key performance metrics rather than just accumulating hours.

Lala: In Black culture, we have a similar concept called "Black excellence"—the idea that you have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good. It leaves no room to just be human or process burnout. When you reached that point of severe stress, what made you decide to walk away?

April: It happened during tax "busy season." My routine was waking up at 9:00 AM, going straight to my computer working from home without even brushing my teeth or showering, and working continuously until 4:00 AM the next morning. Ordering food delivery was the only highlight of my day.

By the second week of that schedule, I realized I had months of this workload ahead of me. I developed severe stress headaches. One day, I took an Advil, but the pain was so bad I took another, and I started physically vomiting from the stress and sleep deprivation.

That was the turning point. I realized this lifestyle was completely unhealthy and unsustainable. I felt like if I didn't quit, I would fall into severe depression or worse. Right after vomiting, I called my parents and told them I was going to quit.

Because I was on a student visa (OPT), leaving a job meant I had a strict time limit to find a new employer willing to sponsor my visa, or I would have to leave the country. My parents initially supported my decision, but a week later they got worried about my visa status and urged me to stay. But I chose to leave anyway because I knew my health and life were on the line.

Lala: You spend a third of your life working, and if a job is destroying your physical and mental health, it isn't worth it.

What happened after you resigned from Deloitte?

April: Finding a new role with visa sponsorship proved extremely difficult. I sent out over a hundred resumes and barely received two interviews.

Eventually, a staffing agency placed me in a lower-paying contracting role at JPMorgan. I built a strong reputation there, and they renewed my contract. During my second contract, I met my husband, Greg, who is an American citizen. We fell in love, got married after six months of dating, and I obtained my green card.

Before getting my green card, my visa status meant constant anxiety about being forced to return to China if I remained unemployed for more than three months. Once I had permanent residency, every job search completely transformed—I would receive two or three offers to choose from every time I interviewed. It was a night-and-day difference.

Lala: Once you had stability in your career, what was the deciding factor that made you leave corporate employment entirely to become an entrepreneur?

April: Even during my very first job, I always felt a desire for something bigger than just following someone else's pre-configured Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). I wanted to be the person designing the systems, creating efficiencies, and driving strategy. But in corporate environments, expressing that ambition can make managers see you as a threat.

The final straw at my last full-time job was the toxic workplace culture. A project manager scheduled client meetings on my behalf and actually asked me to cancel a personal doctor's appointment so I could attend a non-urgent client call.

God knows how hard it is to schedule doctor appointments! Having a colleague tell me to prioritize a meeting over my personal health was the absolute trigger. I said, "Yeah, no. I own my schedule and my health." I decided then and there that I didn't need to be a traditional full-time employee anymore.

I posted my resume online, landed a three-month NetSuite consulting contract, resigned from my job, and launched my own consulting path.

Lala: Tell our listeners about your company, InSphere Consulting, and how you came up with the name!

April: InSphere Consulting specializes in ERP software implementation—specifically NetSuite.

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. Without an ERP system, a growing business might use QuickBooks for accounting, Monday.com for project management, Clockify for time tracking, and Fishbowl for inventory. None of those separate systems talk to each other in real-time. An ERP consolidates all of those business functions into one unified, real-time database with a single login.

At InSphere Consulting, we interview a company's leadership and employees, design their custom workflows in NetSuite, handle complex data migration from their old software, build SOPs, train their staff, and provide ongoing system support.

As for the name InSphere: "Sphere" represents the global earth, and "InSphere" represents bringing everyone across the globe into one shared, equal space. I wanted to build a company where everyone—clients, partners, and team members—is treated with equal respect and value.

Lala: I love that so much. As two female minority business owners who met through an entrepreneurship program, have you faced challenges getting clients or building trust in an industry dominated by traditional corporate structures?

April: When I first arrived in the U.S. in 2011, I felt like a stranger entering someone else's culture, so I naturally adopted a quiet, subordinate posture. But after living, studying, and working here for years, I realized that true equality isn't automatically given—you have to fight for it, demonstrate your expertise, and prove your worth to earn trust.

American society carries heavy stereotypes regarding gender, race, and background. People don't always picture an Asian woman as the lead ERP systems consultant or business owner in the room. You constantly have to break those implicit biases through excellence and self-advocacy.

Brian: It's inspiring to see women of color taking ownership, building successful companies, and proving people's assumptions wrong.

Lala: Compared to your early career where you suppressed your emotions to hit external metrics, how are you caring for yourself and living more fully today?

April: I worked with a wonderful therapist who taught me the importance of naming my emotions and practicing mindfulness. Learning to pause, check in with myself, and identify how I'm feeling was an eye-opening experience.

I’m stepping out of the shell of trying to live up to my parents' or society's expectations, and realizing that I am living this life for myself. I also view relationships much more holistically now—not just as static roles like "boss" or "peer," but as multi-dimensional connections where we can be friends, business partners, collaborators, and co-creators.

Lala: If you could speak directly to a young girl in China—or anywhere in the world—who is currently feeling trapped by intense academic or societal pressure, what advice would you give her?

April: Never allow any institution or environment to limit your possibilities.

Schools and corporations design systems to make people easier to manage, but you do not have to internalize their definition of success as your only option. Recognize what an environment requires of you, but remember that staying in it is always a choice.

Don't force yourself down a traditional "elite" path just because you were told to. There are infinite ways to build a successful, fulfilling life—whether through trade skills, entrepreneurship, artistic expression, writing, or public speaking. Honor your own ambition, define success on your own terms, and never block your own possibilities.

Lala: "Don't block your own possibilities." That is so powerful!

April, thank you so much for sharing your journey, your wisdom, and your heart with us today. If our listeners want to connect with you or learn more about InSphere Consulting, where can they find you?

April: You can find InSphere Consulting on LinkedIn and visit our website at insphereconsulting.com! Feel free to reach out through our contact form—I’d love to connect!

Lala: All of those links will be in our show notes!

Brian, how can our listeners stay connected with our show?

Brian: You can email us at embwpodcast@gmail.com! Let us know your thoughts, or reach out if you'd like to be a guest on the show.

Lala: Thank you all for listening to Everything's Not Black & White. Please like, subscribe, and share this episode, and we'll see you next time!

Brian: See ya! Bye!

April: Thank you, everyone!