People’s headshots (images, not ‘BOOM HEADSHOT‘s) are used in promos all the time. That’s great!

But I’m noticing a theme with the promo headshots I see these days – They’re all fucking old.

And by fucking old, I actually mean fucking young. The image is old. But the person in the image is young! Err, younger than they used to be. As in the person in the promo doesn’t look anything like the actual person does these days.

A now-yoga instructor from Ursinus used a headshot from 2015 on her “I’m a yoga instructor now! Join my class at XYZ!” post! Seven years!

Two people at my former employer (Sam, you’ll be able to guess who I’m speaking about) used the same super dated pictures of themselves for promotions all the time. They looked great in those pictures! They were also 10 years younger and 30 pounds lighter when it was taken!

In an ever-increasing virtual world, we may never know what the person we’re emailing or talking to actually looks like. You might as well put up your metaverse avatar for your picture if you’re not going to use an accurate picture.

So what should the rules be here?

Should there be an age limit on the pictures used? No more than five years old? Three years? I’d say no more than five years old.

If I’m ever presenting at a conference or speaking on a webinar, I want the following to be my promo picture no matter what.

Keynote Speaker and director of marketing at Stortz Tools, Sam Stortz!