Axladitsa: Weaving together place, purpose, and people in Greece
In the wild, untamed landscape of South Pelion, Greece lies Axladitsa - an old olive farm evolving into something more profound. Within its 24 acres, multiple living systems – human and more-than-human – are evolving together. The land itself holds patterns woven through generations, which now inform how we work on developing its unique essence and contribution.
Strategic brand development through regenerative frameworks
Collaborative pattern mapping and synthesis
Ecosystem relationship mapping
Brand attribute and personality definition
Facilitated co-creative sessions
Services provided
The mission
The search for ‘wholeness’ + clarity
While multiple initiatives were already flourishing, the stewards of this place - Maria Scordialos and her family - recognised the need to understand the ‘wholeness’ of this initiative better. And that the understanding of this would make way for a narrative and a brand that would draw the people who were meant to belong there in.
Maria brought me into the project because we are both regenerative practitioners and she wanted someone to come in with fresh eyes and perspectives to help develop the richness that was unfolding.
The challenge
Going beyond traditional brand development
When I met with Maria, Linnea, Stella, and George, each brought elements of personal importance to share: learning, art, music, food, activism, land cultivation. Rather than look at these as ‘parts’ that we try to shape into a whole, our mission was to come back home to Axladitsa as a living system. Traditional brand development often uses external frameworks and market-driven solutions in a way that imposes them. We wanted to engage in a process of seeing and articulating the inherent wholeness already present.
Rather than looking at learning, art, music, food, activism, tourism and cultivation as separate activities to be marketed under the umbrella of the business, we needed to explore the essence of this living system and what the natural expressions of that were. We needed to look at how these existed in relation to honouring and contributing to the land of Axladitsa and the wider Promyri region.
The process
Exploring the Greek way
Throughout all of our workshops together, the way of the region, South Pelion and the nearby village, Promyri, came through as the heartbeat of this project. The dynamic relationship between Axladitsa and its surrounding region is what catalyses the regeneration of its living systems.
In South Pelion, people have been living with the land in a way that’s almost completely lost in cities. As neoliberalism took hold and people moved away from the region towards economic opportunities, the region maintained a slower, more intentional pace of life. One that’s deeply connected to the hills, forests, and the sea. For generations, they’ve adapted their agriculture to the land’s natural rhythms, growing things like olives in harmony with the seasons, and relying on the ocean not just for food, but also as a major transport route and a vital part of their identity and economy.
For a long time, this way of life was dismissed as ‘not developed enough’, and as foreigners started to discover the beautiful beaches, the only development was holiday homes for people who wanted to escape, but not be required to be in any kind of relationship with the place they were in.
This was all extremely relevant context to layer through our discussions. Any tourism endeavours at Axladitsa had to work with this context and ultimately help the region uncover its potential. Axladitsa and all of the initiatives connected with it needed to grow the capacity of everyone to be in a vitalising relationship with the region.
The process
Patterning + mapping
Through a series of workshops facilitated by me, distinct patterns began emerging. Maria’s close relationship with the land was very evident and the energy and interests Stella, Linnea, and George brought added a distinct vitality.
We kept coming back to the build, ‘Mimi’, a few small self-contained apartments that would house potential guests. This was a natural reflex because it was the big investment, not just financially, but also time, energy, and building on the land is a big decision.
I started asking more questions and putting out a few challenges here and there to see where the energy lay. As we went, I captured more and more of the little gems that kept coming up, mapping them onto our digital whiteboard, seeking relationships.
That the build, Mimi, would be a place where people could be like nesting swallows, migrating back each year to deepen their relationship with the place
That it was important for staying at Mimi to feel like ‘homing’, rather than renting
That Mimi would be a place of hospitality, in the Greek sense. The Greek word for hospitality, philoxenia, is a rich concept, roughly translating to ‘friend of the foreigner’, or the ‘acceptance of strangers’
This process of all of us visually starting to see how these relationships were emerging and delving deeper into Mimi brought us back to Axladitsa as a whole:
That everything actually starts with Axladitsa, not the Living Wholeness Institute or the build, Mimi
That the potential of Axladitsa lies in its strong presence and essence. It’s a place of cultivation that invites you into work and be with the rhythms and patterns of the place. And that’s powerful right now, as we relearn to co-evolve with the more-than-human world and regenerate ourselves from challenging daily lives.
The process
Mapping people relationships
Understanding what was emerging about Axladitsa, enabled us to explore what a potential audience might be. Maria was very clear that she didn’t want this to be transactional. There would be no traditional approaches and she pushed back against using the word ‘customer’.
This was great because it really challenged my business/marketing mind. When I first started doing regenerative work, I found this very challenging (and I still do). Surely, I’m there to help these people earn revenue on their build and to do that, they would need customers?
I’ve come to realise, doing brand strategy, that sometimes jumping straight into a framework like a ‘Customer circle’, tends to give people a narrow focus, where they miss out on potential. It’s also important to question the words we use and use better ones. ‘Customer’ can be too transactional. Instead, I combined a combination of marketing and regenerative frameworks and exercises to help us explore:
Foundational friends
Mutual exchange stewards
Partnerships
Seasonal residents
Volunteers
Trade
People who want facilitation
People we admire in these spaces
We were able to start mapping out an audience that felt true to the land and true to Maria and her family. It was important that people felt invited in, that they were extended stewards of this place, and that we were creating a living map of people open to developing themselves and their worldview in relationship with others and with Axladitsa.
The outcome
Creating a clear, cohesive foundation to build from
Through a series of deeply collaborative 90-minute strategy sessions, we developed:
A regenerative brand positioning framework that aligned with the land's essence and potential
A number of brand attributes and personality emerging from place-sourced patterns
An ecosystem map of relationships and contributions (instead of customer segmentation)
A foundation for authentic messaging that honors both the human and more-than-human dimensions
What emerged was a deeper understanding of Axladitsa's role in catalyzing regenerative change. The frameworks we worked with helped articulate:
How individual initiatives contributed to the whole
Ways different participants could engage meaningfully
Patterns for evolving in harmony with place
Language that honored both practical and sacred dimensions
While traditional metrics don't capture the full depth of this work, the process:
Created newfound clarity and cohesion among family members around their shared vision
Established a solid foundation for evolving their initiatives in harmony with the land
Developed frameworks for understanding their work through a regenerative rather than extractive lens
Built capacity for the next phase of Axladitsa's evolution
Looking forward
Seeds of transformation
This work provides a strong foundation as Axladitsa continues its evolution. The patterns and frameworks we uncovered continue to inform their development, allowing for organic growth while maintaining coherence with core purpose and place.
The process exemplified regenerative development in action - not imposing solutions but carefully cultivating conditions for new possibilities to emerge. It demonstrated how branding, when approached regeneratively, can help realize the potential inherent in both people and place.
More than that, it showed how business practices themselves can be transformed when we work with rather than against living systems principles. As we face mounting ecological and social challenges, such approaches become not just desirable but necessary for creating truly sustainable futures.
The story of Axladitsa continues to unfold, but the roots are now deeper, the patterns clearer, and the potential more fully realized. It stands as a testament to what's possible when we align human activity with the wisdom of living systems.
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