33-year-old Lucy SST started Top Secret Folder, a guide to local attractions, in early 2022. She had been working for a farm in Pine Plains, NY, where she encountered many visitors asking for restaurant and shop recommendations in the area. Upon discovering that no resource provided a comprehensive list of things to do in the immediate area, she realized that she could fill a vital niche. 

When Lucy got  the idea for Top Secret Folder, she envisioned it to be an online magazine of sorts. She had extensive experience managing an online events calendar and listings, and she wanted to create a directory with additional editorial pieces on the website. Originally, Top Secret Folder was a physical booklet that listed local restaurants separated into categories; the project has since grown to include a directory of farms, restaurants, CSAs, artisans, and more. In its current form, Top Secret Folder is an online, illustrated events calendar that lives primarily on Instagram and on the website. 

The Hudson Valley is quite large – officially stretching from the Capital District south to southern Westchester county – so Lucy wanted to focus on a small segment of the Hudson Valley. Top Secret Folder is based in Stanfordville, NY, and focuses on the surrounding ten towns, which include Red Hook, Pine Plains, and Amenia among others.

“The name ‘Top Secret Folder’ is something that I had thought of as a good name for a project before I even had this idea at all,” Lucy explained.

She has a friend who buys and sells website domain names, so she ended up purchasing the website domain topsecretfolder.com nearly seven years ago. “When you come up with a good name for something, get the website, and see what suits it later on.” 

“Calling it ‘Top Secret’ gives it a little mystery.” Not many people know that Lucy is the one behind Top Secret Folder. Although she doesn’t necessarily keep it a secret, she does enjoy the aspect of anonymity that the project gives her. 

“It definitely makes it easier for people to engage with the content, too, because they don’t feel like they’re talking to a person as much,” she said. “Sometimes, I get messages on Instagram from people who think there’s a whole team of people doing this project. I like that the site gives the impression that there are multiple people involved. I do have a few other people involved as well and others in mind that I would like to work with on special projects in the future.” 

Working in art 

Lucy worked on the management side of an art gallery in San Francisco, CA, for eight years. Some of her tasks included editing the gallery’s magazine and doing all the back-end management that was required to successfully run an art gallery. 

“The main thing that made starting a business easy was my experience in managing event calendars. I’ve done so much scrolling through poorly set up calendars that I don’t think people want to look at,” she explained. “For me, it’s a matter of compiling all the information in one place, distilling it down, and arranging it in a way that people can easily understand.” 

While she has limited experience in graphic design, Lucy has a penchant for art. She has always engaged in some kind of art practice and frequently discusses creative projects with her mother, who is an artist, and her other creative friends. 

“I got really jaded on the idea of being a working artist while I was working in galleries. It’s one of those things where sometimes you don’t want to know the behind-the-scenes of an industry,” Lucy explained. “It felt like I could get lost doing  something that I really care about in a contemporary art space.”

Making Top Secret Folder accessible for all

Lucy noted that there wasn’t anything particularly challenging about starting this project because she was operating in a bit of a vacuum, and, perhaps most importantly, she was the only one working on the project. 

“Keeping the space that I cover limited has helped me so much,” she explained. “I make the rules and I can make exceptions, too. For the purposes of this project, Stanfordville is the center of the universe, and then I cover things around that.”

She shared that many people feel like their best bet is to search “events near me this weekend,” but that doesn’t truly give a full picture of what’s happening in the local area on a smaller scale. Additionally, not everyone engages with technology in the same way, so they may not be as aware of things that are happening in the area; Lucy wants to reach those people, too. 

For example, Hackett Farm Supply in Clinton Corners, NY, hosts a kid-run farmers market during the harvest season, but unless you are a regular customer of Hackett Farm Supply or follow them on Instagram, it’s unlikely that you would know about this event. 

“The coolest thing to me is being a solid part of the community that I grew up in, and this is a great way to do that.”

Work-life balance can be difficult at times, but Lucy often reminds herself that she’s the one in charge and has the power to step away when she needs to. As such, she recently took a few weeks off, during which she updated the website and worked on future projects. 

“This project has amazing momentum and I don’t want to take that for granted, but I also don’t want to get dragged along either,” she mused.

The end goal of the project is the same in terms of compiling information about local businesses and events, but Lucy’s plan has definitely changed from when she first set out on this journey. Over time, she has discovered that one of the main goals is ensuring that information is easier to access altogether.

“That’s part of what I want the website to do. I want it to be a clear resource for a lot of different categories and to be accessible,” she explained. “I’d love to have a section of local tradespeople that I know and recommend, and other people can write in and suggest people that they know and recommend, too. That’s what I’m looking to do with a lot of the other categories, too.” 

Inclusive and interactive

Going forward, Lucy is looking to make Top Secret Folder more interactive. The new project is based on eki stamps, which are free, collectible, rubber ink stamps that are found in many train stations in Japan. The designs are typically emblematic of the train station’s associated city or surrounding area, including landmarks, mascots, etc. 

Lucy is working on producing a booklet that will cost less than $10 that people can use to collect their stamps. She’ll be making stamps in collaboration with local businesses that are in Top Secret Folder’s coverage area and providing an online map of all of the places that people can get their stamps. 

“You don’t have to use the book. You can use your own little book, a receipt, or scrap paper, but if you’d like to buy the book, that’s a nice way to support the project. The stamps are also a nice way for me to work with local businesses on developing a fun image. There’s only so much I get to know from snooping at a distance,” Lucy laughed. 

Also in the future, Lucy is interested in featuring other artists’ illustrations in Top Secret Folder and even hosting guest artists on Instagram for a week or so at a time.  

While she’s looking for ways to monetize the project, she also wants to be mindful that she’s not excluding some of the vital members of the community. She notes that utilizing a traditional advertising format would cause her to omit events such as a kid’s lemonade stand or someone’s yard sale. 

“I would be cutting out some people and events that I think are the most interesting. Of course I would like to make a few dollars from it one day, but I want to ensure that I’m including the things that are the most fun in my mind, too.” 

“Besides, it’s cool when a business owner tells me that a bunch of people showed up to an event that they held and said that they heard about it from my page. That’s rewarding enough for me,” she said. 

There really isn’t anything that Lucy wishes she knew beforehand. The fun part is learning along the way. “The best has been learning about things that are in my backyard that I didn’t know were there.” •

To stay updated on local events and to learn more about Top Secret Folder, visit topsecretfolder.com and follow them on Instagram @topsecretfolder.