Story by Rebecca Coudret

Photographs by Bob Gwaltney

First you notice the shoes, then the confidence.

    Danielle Barnwell is the

kind of woman who can get

away with just about anything.

    Maybe it's her laugh. Her firm handshake. Especially her slightly outrageous sense of fashion.

    She walks into the room in black, pin-striped, cuffed shorts. They're short shorts. And those heels - 3 inches, maybe even 4 inches high.

    Mostly, though, what commands

attention is her confidence.    

Shoulders back, head held high, she manages to be every bit the businesswoman in those shorts and those shoes. Her hair swept up, the vestiges of red lipstick that was smiled, talked and lip-licked away hours ago, she offers a firm handshake and a big smile.

    Where some women might be hesitant to make gigantic cross country professional leaps, Danielle takes it in stride with a laughing, expressive confidence that comes from being sure of who she is.

Danielle Barnwell spends half the day in her car, checking on employees and working with clients. On her first call of the day, she checks in with an employee who had been on the job three weeks.