Conversations with Walter Bethea

Today we’d like to introduce you to Walter Bethea

Hi Walter, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Going into my senior year of high school, I had to make a decision on if I wanted to play basketball for the next five years (Senior year of high school through college) and about halfway through my final summer of AAU basketball, as much as I loved the game, I didn’t want to dedicate my life to it for the next five years. After talking it over with my parents, specifically my dad who was an NAIA All-American at Park University, they respected my decision but made it clear I had to find a way to still be productive with my new free time. So after a couple of weeks of adjusting to being a NARP I started to think about what I wanted to do now that I’d hopped off the basketball track. At the time I was 17 so I figured I have about 5 years to try new things before I had to become a “real adult” in the working world. So I thought about a couple of things I had been interested in growing up but never really had time to do because I was so hyperfixated on basketball. The first thing was acting, I love movies, always have, ever since I can remember. So, after a bit of thought and finding a line of reasoning that went something like “Well, every famous actor now had to have started somewhere” let to me doing a google search that would change my life. “Acting Opportunities near me” I searched that up and next thing I knew I was taking an acting class that led to me eventually signing with my agencies and beginning to get work in the industry. I took the class in June 2022, signed my first contract with an agency in September of 2023, worked as an extra on a few sets early in 2024, did a summer acting program at NYCDA in June-July of 2024, booked my first gig in August of 2024 and haven’t looked back since. Since then I’ve been in a handful of commercials, a PSA, as well as a short and indie film with what looks to be plenty more acting jobs on the horizon. I also began doing stunt training in August of 2024 when I joined Ronin Stunt Company’s trainee program, where I’ve learned a lot, made new friends and even got to be in a fight scene for a film called Royal Retribution. Honestly, I’ve been extremely lucky and blessed to be in the position I am and the future looks bright.
As for content creation, I’ve always enjoyed making videos. Ever since I got my hands on iMovie when I was in middle school I loved throwing together videos, filming something that I could edit, using musical.ly etc. but I never really thought about actually creating content. I’d made a mildly hit tiktok here and there in high school but I was never thinking about making videos full time. However, during my senior year of high school, I took a creative writing class and for one of our projects we had to interview someone who inspired us. Most people did their parents or older siblings or something of that sort. But because I wanted to switch it up in the name of hopefully getting a better score on the project, I interviewed my friend Spencer Jones who was the star player for Stanford Men’s Basketball at the time and is now a member of the Denver Nuggets. After we finished the assignment portion, I was chatting with him and asked if he’d mind if I uploaded it to YouTube. He gave me permission to do so and thus began my interest in content creation. The video got something small like 200 views but at the time I thought I’d hit the jackpot. After this I decided to start a podcast called “Wade in the Walter” which for someone starting with zero subscribers and zero listeners went pretty well. By Christmas I had hit 100 subscribers which again felt like the greatest thing ever. Eventually this evolved into me creating actual YouTube videos and after some deliberation with myself, I decided the best way to grow an audience was to create a series I could upload everyday. In that idea, “Song of the Day” was born, which was a series where for every single day in 2023 without fail I would upload a short of me lip syncing a song. Along with this, I uploaded a variety of videos, from basketball commentary to vlogs to skits and between January of 2023 and May of 2023 my audience grew all the way to 1000 subscribers, meeting my goal of 1000 subs by graduation. Throughout the rest of the year my total amount of subscribers would grow to well over 2000 and the song of the day series came to an end. After which, I’ve continued to upload longer form videos to YouTube and the channel has continued to grow to over 3000 subscribers, sitting at 3008 today. I want to be more consistent with my upload schedule and have the goal of hitting 10k subs by the end of 2025.
2023 was definitely the year I focused on YouTube where as 2024 really was the start of my acting career, so for this year I want to be able to strike a balance and do both whilst also studying political science in college at JCCC this semester and the University of Kansas next semester.
That’s pretty much my story.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, of course not. I’d say the biggest struggle has been self-doubt and a sort of imposter syndrome. For example, a video will get thousands to millions of views and it’s great but also there’s always a feeling of “Do I deserve this?” Or I’ll get an audition for an ESPN commercial or a tv show I’ve watched and it can be a bit stressful. Along with this, I didn’t get my first gig and didn’t start having frequent auditions until nearly a year after I had signed with my agencies. Now it’s not really an issue but there has been a lot of self-doubt about if I’m good enough, is what I’m doing the right thing, how can I be better? I’ve had months where I’ve gained a couple hundred subscribers, I’ve also had months where I’ve gained 10. I’ll post a video and it’ll get thousands of views and then the next one struggled to break a hundred. Not to mention when I’m asked what I want to do for the rest of my life by adults and tell them “Oh, I want to be a full time actor and YouTuber.” is something that’s been hard for me, especially adults that know me well and were under the impression I was planning on going to law school and becoming a lawyer. So whether it be audition droughts, a dip in views on social media or just the fear that I won’t make it chasing something others may seem “silly” those are probably the biggest struggles I’ve faced along the way.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an actor and a YouTuber. For acting, I’ve been in commercials, short films and done stunts for a feature film. In terms of YouTube I kind of just post whatever idea comes to mind, sometimes I post vlogs, commentary videos, challenge videos or skits. For YouTube my biggest thing was my song of the day series in 2023. For acting most people who know me for it have seen me in commercials for central bank and Manhattan mini storage. What I’m most proud of is the fact that I’ve been able to balance acting and YouTube with being a full time student. As for what sets me apart from others is I just refuse to give up on dreams that some people may deem childish. I have a relentless work ethic and if just one thing I can do creatively can make someone happy or strike an emotional chord with them, I’ve done my job.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
For people starting out, try everything and don’t be discouraged. Keep trying different things and see what works, see what doesn’t and go from there. Never quit, unless you’re not having fun anymore. If it’s something you’re passionate about be relentless and eventually everything will fall into place.
Something I wish I knew when I was starting out is that there are a lot more like minded people in the area than you think, you just have to try and find them, whether it’s online or in-person there are plenty of creatives in KC that would love to work with you!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walt.bethea?igsh=aDgzd3RmYnNyemlr&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18b4rkuy2U/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@waltbethea?si=hXUMzyq-2_H2NKBY