Second Shift: When work and play have no boundaries

Our Second Shift series features people working more than one job and finding creative ways to make money. This week, meet a New Yorker who turned her love for dining out into three jobs. Want to be featured? Email Emily.Laurence@metro.us.

Name: Shari Bayer
Age: 41
Residency: Columbus Circle
Lives: Alone
Number of jobs: 3

Briefly describe your three jobs.

Primarily, I have my own PR company, Bayer PR, specializing in culinary and hospitality, which I started in 2003. That’s my bread and butter. I work from home, which is great because I don’t have traditional hours. Mondays through Fridays, I’m usually at my desk pitching, answering emails and writing press releases, or attending meetings. On Wednesdays, I travel to Bushwick to do a radio show onHeritage Radio Network, called All In The Industry, interviewing people in the restaurant industry and giving listeners a behind-the-scenes look. As the host and producer, I do everything for it: booking the interviews, doing the interviews — even the social media. And last, I write for FathomAway.comabout dining and traveling alone, something I do a lot.

Do you feature some of your PR clients on your radio show?

I haven’t because I try to separate it, but they do come up in conversation sometimes. But the show has introduced me to a lot of amazing people and is a great way to build my PR business and get referrals.

That’s great that you know exactly what you’re passionate about and found several ways to explore that, not just one.

I wasn’t one of those people who had a “plan” after college. I dabbled in a lot of things. I worked in restaurants from the front of the house to the back. I went to cooking school because I thought I wanted to be a chef at one point. Now I can use all that knowledge to help others.

A lot of your work must involve going out at night.

Yes. I typically go out every night during the week and stay in on Saturday nights. I’m the opposite of most people. Luckily most of my friends are in the industry and like eating out too, so I get to see them that way.

How do you keep from getting burnt out?

I think traveling has been my way of escaping because I get out of my routine. But I also feel like I can’t separate my social life from my work life. For example, I’ll be out of the country eating at a restaurant, and the next thing you know I’m meeting the chef and talking about work. I don’t know how to separate the two. I think I just like to work.

Follow Emily on Twitter: @EmLaurence