10th March, 2025: I changed my Instagram user name from “the_experimentor” to “nishitamohta”.

There’s so much identity & weight attached to what I decide to call myself on Instagram, specially on my public account. Because it’s not just a “user name”, it feels like a “brand name”. Everyone’s a celebrity, and their own paparazzi, and personal branding is what it’s all about. Right, right??

In the period from 2020-2021, my account used to be known by “vaccines for fear”. This was because of the visual art project that I was working on pretty actively by then. And there was a whole long decision making process in shifting from that to “the experimentor” when I realised that my relationship with fear had shifted entirely and I didn’t want to create vaccines for it anymore.

I feel a similar shift inside of me right now, in 2025 – that I’m not just experimenting anymore. I know my shit and I’m building. Ofcourse the experiment-mindset is very much a part of what I continue doing (examples being this social media sabbatical and continuously putting half-baked products out there to test & evolve). But I don’t want to be known primarily for experimenting anymore. I know what I know, and I’m building new things with confidence.

Zooming out, this is what the journey of my Instagram account has been so far:

• Studio Folklore (when I thought I’d give a name to my design practice, where I wanted to focus on storytelling for heritage spaces & experiences) — this account mostly stayed empty because it was a studio account and, much like updating one’s design portfolio, I never got “a chance” to update it.
• Vaccines For Fear (when I decided to use this empty account for my project by this title)
• The Experimentor (when I realised that fear was just one of the problems but maintaining an experiment-mindset was the solution to many creative challenges. This username also served as a reminder to myself – hey, keep experimenting)
• Nishita Mohta (now that I feel like I don’t need to be defined only by the experiment mindset, and a word that many misspell. I am more comfortable owning up to the things I know, and I don’t need a disclaimer (hey, I’m experimenting) for the things I don’t know).

A recent part of this journey also involved getting feedback from people I trust (strategists, founders & my own clients) on some brand names for my Design Ops work. This brand name was supposed to include my existing consulting services & future products. But the final conclusion of all those discussions was to continue creating with my own name – till there’s some massive company to be established (which is not something that’s on the books for me)

How odd that it took so long to just own up to my own name in the personal space, and not try to create a brand to hide behind. Some things seem obvious in retrospect, but we need time to build up our own conviction.

A sense of clarity on my direction has slowly taken place in my mind, and I think that’s making me own my own name as my “brand” name. It makes me feel that I don’t need to have “the experimentor” as a disclaimer. I feel okay with my experiments succeeding and failing under my own name now.

Added convenience: Now I’m just @nishitamohta everywhere on social media 😀

20th March: A podcast episode where I’m the guest got released, and I decided to share the link on my stories. While I didn’t spend any time creating a post and writing anything much with it (the way I’d usually make it very conversational), I now am feeling this urge to go and see if people responded to my story and so on.

How to not care about people’s responses? This desire for my work to be acknowledged? I was perfectly fine till the point when I hadn’t shared anything. I was doing the work and living my life for the experience itself. But the minute I share it, it becomes the start of a whole other thing, where I want to know what people think if I’m putting something out there.

Can I shift my attention to something else? Another intention behind sharing, so that i don’t get hooked to the likes & responses?