Cheryl Alexander & Associates has built an impressive roster of programs to develop leaders in corporations, especially women—80 percent of its training seminars are attended by women only, 20 percent by both genders.

Yet Cheryl Alexander herself, founder of the 40-year-old coaching and leadership development company, is torn. She is knee-deep into a massive re-branding initiative—her fourth in 40 years, she says—and she knows that both women and men in corporations need to hear her firm’s message.

“We’re so powerful with women, but if men and women can’t connect you won’t have the engagement and retention” of employees, Alexander says.

Her company is one of two winners of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge, which pairs two CEOs with experts who can help them meet their growth goals. We’ll follow their progress starting now through November on this new blog.

“We’re about the human connection amidst the swirl,” Alexander says, so shouldn’t her firm’s services be aimed at both types of humans?

Not to Dean Willer, an attorney at Winthrop & Weinstine who works with many closely held companies and is an Upsize Growth Challenge expert. He advises owning a niche.

“I would strongly consider going full bore into being female-centric,” he says, adding there’s a tendency for business owners to think they can go after a broader market and double their business. “The problem is you blend the message and you’re not differentiated any more.”

He believes that having one powerful sentence—“I do this”—helps not only in marketing but also in pricing. “You can probably command higher prices” by being the experts in a niche, he says, and charging more for true expertise, rather than competing with dozens and dozens of individuals and firms who play the field.

Next week: Meet the second Upsize Growth Challenge winner, AutoData Systems.