29-year-old is scaling back her six-figure career to run a local bookstore with her husband: It's an 'intrinsic' part of the community

This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which examines how people earn, spend and save their money.

Paola Merrill never meant to be an influencer.

The 29-year-old was working in a preschool when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and her hours were cut, she says. So in her free time, she decided to make videos of the picturesque green fields and mountains in her hometown of Winthrop, Washington, where she lives with her now-husband. Her channel quickly gained a following and currently has around 1.6 million subscribers.

Merrill had also been selling prints of her watercolor paintings on Etsy, and as her YouTube following grew, so did her number of orders. "We packaged about 40,000 over the course of four years," she says. She became a full-time creator by the end of 2020.

Though Merrill was thrilled she could make a living as an artist, the gig was not without its challenges. "I started struggling a lot with panic attacks and just this feeling of deep anxiety every time I was trying to get a video completed or meet deadlines," she says.

So when she learned she was pregnant in 2023, Merrill decided to step away from YouTube and start a Patreon account where she could make more minimal content for a smaller group of people. In 2025, she also started selling her self-published fairytale book on Etsy. Her income "did reduce considerably" in the transition, Merrill says, but her health and well-being have improved.

That wasn't the end of Merrill's career shift, though. In early 2025, she learned that Trail's End Bookstore, the local bookstore she'd been working at part-time for years, was up for sale. She says she realized running it could be a great next step for her, so she and her husband, Luke Garing, officially bought it in October.

"We live in a small town," Merrill says. "There are not that many community hubs, and this bookstore is an important, intrinsic part of the community."

Merrill now balances running the store and her Patreon account, where she's slowly scaling back content so she can focus full-time on Trail's End. Garing, 37, works full-time as a field technician for a land surveying company. In 2025, the two brought in about $209,000 combined.

Here's how the couple and their 22-month-old son Caspian — whose name was inspired by C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" series — are building their new life as bookstore owners in their rural Washington town.

Merrill and Garing spent around $260,000 on the bookstore between the purchase price and costs for initial improvements. The latter included investing in new fixtures and displays and hiring a painter to create a few murals. They're still working on a few more additions.

Garing brought his passion for collecting rocks and crystals to the venture. When the couple bought the store, he installed a crystals display, which has become another source of revenue for the business.

Merrill is more focused on the day-to-day operations of the business. She estimates that she spends about 20 hours per week working at the store, where she sells to customers, orders inventory and handles insurance, among other tasks. She spends another four hours or so at home answering emails throughout the week.

Above all, she wants to find a balance between meaningful work and spending time with her son. "I definitely work a lot less than I used to," she says, which has helped.

One of the challenges of the business is that it's seasonal. While the store is profitable overall, "month to month, the profitability changes drastically depending on tourism and changes in weather," says Merrill. The store's income can go up as much as 100% during the busy summer season and down 50% or more in slower months, she says.

Merrill and Garing say they've braced themselves for the fluctuation, and are investing in inventory now in preparation for more foot traffic as the weather warms.

In 2025, Trail's End Bookstore saw a net income of nearly $29,000.

"It's an incredible challenge, but a wonderful one to learn how to have a dream but really focus on gaining all the knowledge to make that dream successful," Merrill says.

Here's how Merrill and Garing's expenses broke down in February:

• Mortgage and utilities: $2,610
• Annual HOA fees: $1,835
• Insurance: $1,373 for health and dental
• Food: $1,334 for groceries and dining out
• Child care: $719
• Discretionary: $294 for crafts, audiobooks, pet food and Netflix
• Medical debt repayment: $140
• Gas: $106       

The couple bought their 1,400 square foot home for about $405,000 in 2022 from Garing's parents — the home was located on their property — with a down payment of around $80,000, Merrill says. They pay their HOA fees once a year in February, and covered the expense from Garing's checking account.

Food is among their biggest expenses for a couple of reasons. First, Washington has a relatively high cost of living compared with some other parts of the U.S. And second, their lives have been so busy with the new business and baby they don't have much time to cook, Merrill says. Garing says he buys both breakfast and lunch out most days.

"We acknowledge our energy levels, our own humanity and our lifestyles, and say, 'Right now, we're spending more on food,'" says Merrill.

Their discretionary spending included crafting supplies Garing bought for a crystals display in the bookstore. Otherwise, the two keep costs down by taking advantage of free activities like hiking, taking walks and using resources like the library, they say.

They also prioritize saving. As of March, they have about $380,760 put away between retirement savings, investments and an education fund for their son. The couple also has about $40,000 in an emergency savings account, including a $24,500 deposit Merrill made in February from her independent book sales on Etsy.

Merrill plans to shut down her Patreon by the end of the year to focus solely on the new business. Running a local bookstore holds a lot of meaning for her because it's a "way I can connect with others and give to others," she says. She wants any future creative online work to feel more like a hobby than a job.

Merrill also says she'd like to maintain her son's privacy instead of sharing her life online.

For her, the biggest part of this journey has been rethinking the term "success."

"Often with starting your own business, the way that you perceive success is to see something improving over time and getting bigger and better," she says. But that growth and the stress around it were crippling, she says, so she ultimately decided to change her framing.

Now, she says, success means simply living a life that's sustainable and manageable by owning a small business that she loves. Although she used to earn six figures through content creation, Merrill aims to pay herself around $40,000 from the bookstore this year, with a goal of one day earning $70,000 per year.

Garing has seen a shift in Merrill as she's moved from content creator to bookseller. "It's absolutely been worth it to transition to the bookstore seeing how much happier Paola is," he says.

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