You wouldn’t think paper guidebooks, the repositioning of a travel brand and the future of digital creative agencies would be Machine Yearning territory.

But they are - when the meeting point is Daniel Houghton.

Daniel is the CEO of Pyxl (that’s P-Y-X-L,) a Nashville-based digital marketing agency. For years, Daniel has operated right up at the edge of digital content design, build and measurement. Before joining Pyxl this year, Daniel was CEO of Lonely Planet. Under his leadership, Lonely Planet made Fast Company’s 2018 "Most Innovative Companies" List and he was a 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30.

Now, Daniel is on the agency side with PYXL and diving in to a new set of challenges as a leader, digital strategist and student of culture. When Shane from Assist sat down with Daniel, the news of his job move had just broken and this was his first interview as PYXL CEO.

This is Machine Yearning, though, so this isn’t the typical arms-crossed-looking-manly-on-the-magazine-cover CEO interview.

Hang out and enjoy.