Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you are a person of integrity, have a passion for working with and helping people, have an open mind and are willing to learn about how you and others "tick", then that's a great start!

To be honest, you will probably know, intuitively but if you need some help ...

• Why not download our free eBooks? There's a whole chapter that covers this issue in eBook 1.
• Alternatively, why not enrol in our low cost introductory course, New Insights Life Coaching 101. There are two powerful quizzes and other decision support tools included in Module 3 that will go a long way to helping you answer this question.

No. There are no pre-qualifications required.

Life coaching is a pursuit of the ‘heart’ more than the ‘head’, meaning that passion and commitment to the cause are more important than academic ability.

In our opinion, it would be a big mistake to set yourself up as a life coach, without first investing in comprehensive, high quality training, such as that offered by New Insights.

Be careful not to underestimate what it takes to be a professional life coach.

Many people make the mistake of assuming that life coaching is just a form of "giving advice" or mentoring, and wrongly believe that life experience is all that is required to be a good coach. Others think it is some form of counselling, or therapy, that helps people overcome their problems.

It is neither of these. In fact, life coaching generally avoids the giving of advice. And life coaching is not a form of therapy or counselling!

Expert training and practice in the various concepts, methods, tools, techniques and skills is essential for anyone who aspires to be an effective and ultimately, successful, life coach.

Briefly put, we doubt you will find better value for your money anywhere else.

In truth, there are a number of reasons. Here are five of them:

• We are dedicated to life coach training excellence. Training people to become great life coaches has been our sole business since 2003, and we are passionate about it!
  
• Our training is built around your needs, not ours. We've designed a very comprehensive and effective home study programme that will fit right in with your busy lifestyle!
• We provide a tried and trusted Life Coaching System with beautifully designed session notes to make a real impression on your practice clients. You can even license the system to use once you become a certified coach to give you a big competitive edge and a ready made business opportunity.
  
• We're passionate about support both during and after your training.
• We operate internationally, with companies based in both SA and the UK and carry local and international accreditation.

And don't just take it from us ...

... Listen to and/or read some of our amazing testimonials. Or take a look at the trainee and coach satisfaction ratings for New insights.

The short answer is No.

The content included in the New Insights training derives from a great many different sources, including a wide range of leaders and thinkers in the field of human motivation, all with their own unique philosophies, ethnic backgrounds and/or religious and other beliefs.

The Programme is designed to be suitable for people from diverse backgrounds and persuasions. We aim to be inclusive and respectful in our approach to anyone who chooses to train with us.

We try to promote an open-minded approach to learning and, although, from time to time, we offer our views on certain aspects of the training, we do not advocate or seek to impose any one specific philosophy, doctrine or religious perspective.

For one thing, the thoroughness, integrity and quality of the certification training they receive.

This includes the study of skills training material and its application through the extensive practice coaching that forms part of our certification process. Details of this are summarised on the professional certificate we provide, which is complemented by a distinctive certified coach identifier 'badge' for use on emails and marketing material.

Many of our trained coaches opt to license our proprietary New Insights Life Coaching System for use in their practices. This is a unique and proven personal transformation programme, comprising 15 power packed sessions and can give our coaches a real advantage, especially when starting out.

This course is perfect for anyone who is still exploring the concept of life coaching, or the idea of following a career in life coaching.

New Insights Life Coaching 101 offers a  low-cost way to get a solid grounding in life coaching, as well as some excellent decision support tools to help decide whether to make the investment in full certification training.

This course is delivered entirely online through the New Insights Online elearning platform.

No.

If you have already made up your mind to become a life coach then you can enrol directly in the New Insights Life Coach Training and Certification Programme.

The full certification Programme covers everything in Life Coaching 101 ... and a lot more!

Yes.

The Programme has been approved by local coach representative body COMENSA, and accredited by the European based international body, ICR, amongst others.

For more on the local and international accreditations and endorsements held by New Insights, please click here.

We call it a 'hybrid' format.

It incorporates the best of 'home study' and 'online' formats. We find this to be the most suitable for a high quality, comprehensive, yet flexible programme of this nature.

The printed skills training and other support material will be courier delivered to you when you enrol (cost is included in the programme fee). 

The skills training material is also presented in Flipbook format for online learning and is complemented by full mp3 audio versions.

We also offer a range of different online resources and support facilities. 

No, not at all. 

Our training has been designed such that everything (even the final theory exam) can be completed and submitted from the comfort of your home, or wherever you choose.

In addition, you set your own agenda for the training. Although we offer suggestions on how to plan your time, the final decision on when to do what lies with you.

You have complete flexibility.

You can choose to enrol whenever you like. We don't have 'intakes'.

You'll receive the programme training material a few days after you enrol and you can get started on it straight away, or whenever it suits you.

It is easy to enrol via our website. Please click here.

No, there are no formal qualifications or pre-requisites. And you do not need to complete our Life Coaching 101 foundation course course prior to enrolling in our certification programme.

Becoming a life coach does, however, require some simple yet important attributes so you should be able to say, hand on heart, that you are:

• a thoroughly ethical and honest person;
• passionate about working with people and helping them achieve their goals and dreams; 
  
• open-minded, willing to develop your self-awareness, and ready to learn a lot about how you and other people 'tick''; and
• ideally, committed to ongoing personal development.

Yes.

Our trainees are exposed to the concept of NLP and various NLP techniques in the Module that deals with Communication.

We believe that NLP has a rightful place in any broad based life coach training programme and is particularly relevant when it comes to building rapport and improving communications with clients.  

That said, there is a lot more to our programme than just NLP.

New Insights life coach training is both comprehensive and thorough.

That's because we are committed to ensuring that when you start out as a professional coach, you have the necessary level of self awareness, knowledge, skill, experience and confidence to be very successful!

It will require some 300-350 hours of your time in all.

As a rough guide, we suggest you should allow between 9 and 18 months to complete certification if you can allocate roughly 4-8 hours of your time each week.

Yes.

The time limit for achieving certification is a generous two years from the date of your registration/enrolment.

We recognise that despite the best laid plans, 'life happens', so this extra 'time cushion' can be helpful for those who may need it.

We've tried to answer this question in some detail on a dedicated page of our website. You can find out more about our CLASSIC, ELITE and PRO tracks by clicking here.

You can find out more about the Programme Fees – and the various 'Easy-Pay-Plan' options we offer for spreading your payments – on a dedicated page of our website.

Please click here.

Unfortunately not.

Having said that, our programme is very affordable when compared with training of a similar standard and we do offer instalment payment options (we call them 'Easy-Pay-Plans') to make the investment easier to manage.

We put a lot of effort into support, to ensure that your training experience is everything it should be.

That starts with a series of introductory audios and a detailed Programme Guide that will tell you everything you need to know about the Programme. We follow that up with a series of regular, informative, and motivational emails  to keep you on track.

The New Insights team is also readily available to offer assistance, through email or by phone. You can contact the New Insights team as often as you want with as many questions as you want. In addition, you’ll have access to our online Forum where you can interact with us or with other trainees and coaches.

And, if you choose the ELITE or PRO track, you'll also have the benefit of the services of a dedicated mentor coach, for up to 20 hours, during your training.

Bottom line - we truly want you to succeed. Your Success is Our Success!

You'll be entitled to refer to yourself as a "New Insights Certified Life Coach' or simply as a 'Certified Life Coach', whatever you prefer.

If you successfully complete the ELITE track then you can use the title: 'New Insights Certified ELITE Life Coach' or 'New Insights Certified Life Coach (ELITE level)' as you prefer.

If you successfully complete the PRO track then you can use the title: 'New Insights Certified PRO Life Coach' or 'New Insights Certified Life Coach (PRO level)' as you prefer.

Along with your certificate you'll receive a certified life coach identifier (specific to the level you achieve) to use in your emails, stationery and marketing material.

Yes, definitely. 

New Insights Africa has a sister company in the UK, New Insights Life Coaching UK.

Between our two SA and UK based companies, we have trained many hundreds of coaches all over the world, from afar afield as Canada, Barbados, Spain, the UAE and New Zealand.

New Insights teaches principles, tools and techniques that are universally applicable and effective no matter where you choose to coach in the world. Just bear in mind that our training (and our Life Coaching System) is all English-language based.

Yes.

The New Insights Life Coach Training and Certification Programme (PRO track) is unique in that it includes three excellent manuals designed to help you do exactly that:

• A Plan for your Practice will help you put together a business plan for your coaching practice and establish your break-even point (number of clients you need to make it viable)
• Selling your Services will introduce you to the psychology and practice of selling your life coaching services so that you'll be two steps ahead of the rest in building a thriving practice.
• Winning Insights will provide you with a treasure trove of hints, tips, tools and practical suggestions to promote and grow your practice

Most life coach training institutions will teach you to structure your coaching sessions using one of the many simple, generic coaching models that exist in the public domain.

New Insights training will do this too. However, we take things a big step further, as our aim is to provide you, and your future coaching practice, with a distinct competitive advantage.

We have researched and developed our own unique and proprietary life coaching model called INSIGHTS. This powerful model provides the structure to guide you to help your clients bring about authentic personal transformation and live purpose driven lives.

We also offer a tried and tested Life Coaching System. This System employs a coaching programme that is founded on our INSIGHTS model. It includes all the necessary structure and professional session notes required to run a 15-session transformational coaching programme with your clients.

When you become a New Insights certified life coach you will be entitled to license the New Insights Life Coaching System for use in your practice if you wish. For a very modest annual fee*, that can even be paid off monthly, you will join the exclusive ranks of 'New Insights Licensed Practitioner Coaches'.

*The licence fee is currently just R2400 + VAT per annum, irrespective of how many clients you may choose to coach with the System.

There is currently no statutory, regulatory authority governing life coaching in South Africa (or the UK or most other countries for that matter) so there is no legal requirement to register with any specific body before you can coach professionally.

However, many coaches do choose to join a local organisation such as COMENSA (The Coaches and Mentors Association of SA) and/or an international body such as the ICR (International Coaches Register).

New Insights recommends this approach as it can promote ongoing networking and help support your ongoing professional development as a life coach.

Yes.

Life coaching is one of the fastest growing industries in the world! That's hardly surprising given the challenging world we live in today.

Twenty or so years ago, life coaches were the exclusive domain of high flying celebrities and seen by many as something of a luxury.

Today, things have changed completely. Life coaching has become more accessible and affordable. A rapidly growing number of regular people are beginning to appreciate the tremendous personal value that comes  from hiring a good life coach.

When you complete our comprehensive certification requirements you'll be able to call on the following:

• A greatly improved level of self awareness and self confidence
• A treasure trove of knowledge
• An amazing toolbox of new skills and techniques
• Extensive practical experience and a pipeline of referrals from practice coaching

So you'll have everything you need to start and build a successful practice, along with the wisdom and insight that we will impart to help you get a steady stream of coaching clients. The rest is up to you!

If you opt to become a New Insights Licensed Practitioner Coach (meaning you choose to adopt the proprietary New Insights Life Coaching System in your practice) then you will be entitled to list your profile on our exclusive Life Coach Directory. At the time of writing, this is a free service offered exclusively to Licensed Practitioner Coaches.

As a broad indication, fees in South Africa generally range between R300 and R1,000 per session (a session generally lasts between 60 and 90 minutes). To get a better idea of what life coaches charge, consult a popular life coach directory such as the one offered by New Insights.

What constitutes a ‘full practice’ will, of course, depend on the individual coach and their desired lifestyle but our research shows that 20-30 clients is not unrealistic for a full-time practice. On average clients would be expected to contract for two coaching sessions per month.

Many coaches earn additional income from international coaching (e.g. using Zoom/Skype), journal coaching in off peak hours, group and/or corporate coaching and, in some cases, motivational speaking and other talking engagements.

We are seeing some of the more progressive corporates hiring life coaches nowadays, but generally this is done on a contract basis rather than through offers of full-time employment.

Most certified life coaches choose to be self employed and set up their own private life coaching practices. A suitable home based business can easily be created for a very low upfront investment. This offers the coach the prospect of a convenient, flexible working lifestyle.