When Alysa Liu stood on Olympic ice with a gold medal around her neck, her reaction surprised many. Asked how it felt, she playfully said it matched her hair color. The medal, she reminded reporters, was just a physical object. Something that could be lost.
What could not be lost was her identity.
( – To read it as a 1-min blog
– To watch it as a 4-min video)
After early championship success at 13 and stepping away at 16 from a high-pressure, win-at-all-costs system, Alysa Liu made a different choice. She returned to skating on her own terms. No longer driven by external expectations. No longer defined by outcomes. She came back to express her artistry, her joy, her freedom.
Winning was no longer her identity anchor. Authentic expression became the driving force. And from that alignment, excellence emerged.
Alysa Liu skated with visible lightness, reclaiming the childhood delight she once experienced playing on the ice with her siblings. Her performance radiated confidence rooted not in applause, but in clarity. In one spontaneous moment after her winning skate, she celebrated without filters or polish. Imperfect. Human. Real. Magnetic.
Her journey underscores a principle that applies far beyond sports. When you stop performing for validation and start expressing who you truly are, performance rises naturally. Joy fuels mastery. Alignment produces impact.
At 10 Plus Brand, this is the foundation of #BeYourOwnBrand and #BeYourOwnSuperPower. For over 16 years, we have helped leaders anchor their brands in identity rather than metrics alone. Enduring brands Think Different. They Stand for Something. And it always starts with the leader.
Alysa Liu’s story reminds us: the journey is destiny. Authenticity is the ultimate power source. When identity leads, influence follows.
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Thank you.
Joanne Z. Tan is the Founder & CEO of 10 Plus Brand, Inc., a brand strategist, thought leadership coach, and speaker. She helps executives, board members, entrepreneurs, and organizations decode their Brand DNA, create authentic brand identity and content to build brand equity and lead their industries in the AI age. Trained in law and business, Joanne was a former journalist, and an award-winning photographic artist. She had a liberal arts education from Brandeis University before earning a law degree. Joanne’s passion is to build brands for leaders and their organizations with her analytical, holistic, and strategic design thinking, as well as her artistic creativity. Her coaching emphasizes comprehensive strategies, business modeling, thought leadership and high authority content creation, brand building, culture, teamwork, leadership mindset and resilience. She guides leaders to stand out with vision, multi-disciplinary approaches, and strategies in leading themselves and their organizations. Additionally, Joanne is a poet, writer, and artist.
© Joanne Z. Tan, 2026. All rights reserved.
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