>> absolutely. i think we can safely say gone are the days we can go to college and study latin for the fun of it. we need to come out and still be able to pay our bills and student loans and things like that. >> this is a professor at the university of steinhart. you tell us college would not be a big deal if we were getting more for our money. >> that's right. i think one of the big problems facing american families is the fact that college tuition is going up quite a bit, almost every year at many colleges and universities, and it does raise the question of accessibility and what you get for the money. i think for many families, they're starting to make tough decisions about what kind of schools they'll send their children to, whether or not that public university that seemed less desirable before is now maybe a good bargain. >> yeah, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars because state schools can do that for you if you're motivated. l. zchl l.z, here's the question. kids have to be ready, don't they? >> that's right. doctors with a higher degree stress a degree that they can get immediately hired in and get a good, high salary. unfortunately, because of the high cost of college education, you're finding less and less students are able to go into school and explore and explore their mind just for the sheer sake of exploring their mind, but they have to be more goal oriented, what does this lead me to? >> i guess my next question, my producer tells me you're a bit of a tiger dad. tell me, what is your greed policy at home? >> i didn't realize i was the tiger dad, but my son, he's a really smart kid. i, you know, went to graduate school. his mother is currently studying for her phd, so he comes from a background in which education is very important. he's a smart kid, so he's expected to get straight a's. >> and if he doesn't? >> if he doesn't, you know, there's incremental punishment based upon what he gets. for instance, if he brings home a b, which happened once, he loses privileges of his cell phone after 6:00. he's not able to use his television or computer after 7:00. if he brings home a c, which hasn't happened, but he did get a c on a math test once, i had him taken off the basketball team. i said, you can only have ext extracurricular activity once the grades are satisfactory, and that means a's. >> so what did you do for your kids? >> i want my kids to succeed as well, but most of all, i want them to live happy and fulfilling lives. my son is 19. he graduated from high school a year ago. i knew he didn't have the motivation for college, but he needed to do something productive. he's working for a firm called city air in los angeles. he works with a tutoring school. he's up every morning at 7:00 a.m. he's learning a lot about the world of work and about service. he will go to college next year, but right now, i think that working is really what's best for him. i'm seeing a lot of 18-year-olds out there who really aren't ready for college. they lack the maturity and they lack the focus. >> you have to read each kid and that's what's so important. you can joke about being tiger moms or tiger dads, but you really have to have the structure for the ambitions and talent of your own kid. >> that's right. life is not a race. the main goal is that you do have a sense of accomplishment, a sense of purpose but also a sense of fulfillment. i think as parents we want to guide our kids, make sure they make good choices, but don't force them to fulfill our dreams and then are left with children that are unhappy. >> another fascinating discussion. nice to see both of you. >> next we talk dirty jobs with mike rowe of the discovery channel who suggests the workplace is more like a combat zone. >> we have this great rift between blue and white collar. i would just say our society has raged a sort of cold war on work. >> we'll tell you why some are skipping college in favor of vocational school and why that may not be a bad idea for some folks in this rough economy. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle -- 8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. 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[ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! it means getting everything you need to invest for yourself, not by yourself. it means choosing from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. plus 5-star service and research designed to increase your intelligence, not insult it. so you can wave good riddance to some high-priced joker churning out cookie cutter portfolios. price is one thing. value is another. don't confuse the two. e-trade. investing unleashed. in depth this week on cnn, america's job hunt. for decades, the message, go to college, get the white collar job has ruled america. but mike rowe, host of "dirty jobs" is working to change that. he's stressing the good jobs are the ones that built and still build this country. you know him as the host of "dirty jobs." >> my name is mike rowe. that's my job. >> where he catches snakes, cleans up tar -- >> there was some glopping. >> and dells with a lot of dirt. and now mike is taking on an issue he says he learned from people who deal out all this dirt. >> we've got this rift between white and blue collar. i would say our society has raged a sort of cold war on work. >> a war on a specertain type o work. skilled labor. lucrative skilled labor careers like electricians, plumbers and machinists have seen their work suffer. >> there is a category in work that's critical, and those jobs have come to feel like -- call it vocational consolation prizes and we're simply not celebrating their contribution. that's why you have a skills gap right now at the same time you have unemployment. >> according to the department of labor, skilled labor like plumbers and steam fit ters, will see a 16% increase in the number of jobs available between now and 2018. skilled labor workers, a 29% bump. the problem, finding people skilled to fit the job and a number that will retire soon. this job bright mike way out to capitol hill where he testified about a skilled crisis. >> we need a pr campaign for skilled labor, like a big one. something that addresses the widening skills gap head on and rejoins the country with that part of the work force. >> while not glamorous, they are essential to keep the country running. >> it's not about, oh, no, the poor tradesman. they're going to be fine. they're going to be great, in fact. it's the rest of us who rely on their work. we're going to take it in the neck. >> those are jobs that can't be outsourced, by the way, and they're also called ladder jobs meaning you can start, move up the ladder, own your own business and actually employ people down the road. when it comes to salaries? plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, make about $50,000, electricians $51,000 and construction laborers, $33,000. if you move up in the trade, you can make well over six figures. up next, we'll tell you why women may hold the key to creating most of the new jobs over the next five years. interesting... wow, i'm blown away. you look great. hotels.com summer sale, save up to 30%. and get a free kindle. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. which meant she continued to have the means to live on... even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. studies show women are increasingly starting their own businesses, and over the next decade will make up the majority of new entrepreneurs in this country. the question, though, how to grow those businesses from relatively small endeavors to million-dollar enterprises. i'd like to introduce you to one woman who would like to grow from $250,000 in sales to the coveted seven figures. we're entering the health garden which what is so unique about it, it's taken care of by kids. >> she's living her dream. she traded her power suit and big city office for health in a barn. it's a hands on program to teach children and families about organic farming and nutrition. >> if you don't have vitamins and minerals in your soil, your plants aren't going to grow healthy and you won't grow healthy. >> what the kids are learning here are how to plant the seeds of sustainable growth, how to grow a healthy body. it means finding money and finding mentors. mentors to help women like stacy take their businesses to a million in sales. >> 7% of small business owners are that small. >> the challenge -- >> to take a well thought-out business that is not making a lot of money and get it to a million dollars in revenue. and stacy had that kind of business. >> for a lot of women, i learned, as being part of count me in, they started sbr cool businesses out of their kitchen. then they're like, oh, my god, now what do i do? >> you want to grow your revenue, so how are you going to do it? >> winning that competition gave me a lot of confidence and it actually gave me out in the trenches working in the guardar with the kids and focus ogt big picture. >> that big picture has six zeros. >> the founder of count me and the creator of take our daughters to workday. it's interesting in this piece, she's trying to grow from $250,000 in sales, which is basically enough to support her, her two barns and two different locations and a couple employees. she's got to kick it up to the next gear. if we're going to have more companies and more employees, they've got to kick it up to the next level. >> i think one of the ways for them to do that is to take -- we say to ourselves we want them and nobody else knows. >> you're so persistent in that piece that 70% of known businesses have $50,000 a less. that's basically your own employer, you are a single person. >> most of them are by themselves. only 16% of known businesses actually have employees. >> 16. >> so what we work on is help them delegate responsibility to others for the responsibility to make more money. women see employees too often as an expense, as opposed to somebody who is going to help you generate more revenue. when they have that mine shift. men are or rell ganttly delegating and taking higher risks, or why is it that women seem to have a smaller operation? >> i think women don't think as big as they need to think, and women don't realize, we have a lot of strengths that we don't utilize in the business world. women are very strong in agility, but we're not using these aptitudes to build big miss. you say, be a grand ambassador for your business, have a creation story and an elevator speech. tell me about that. >> i think every entrepreneur needs to have a creation story, the story of how they started the business and why they started the business. when you think of nike, phil knight has his creation story. he was a high school basketball star, a track star. he was a shoot that he never shoots. he has a whole story, selling the shoes out of the trunk of a car. >> what if the story is i got really sick and tired of working crazy hours because i want to be home with my kids, too, and i just couldn't do the rat race. if that is the genesis of your job -- that's why a lot of women are starting businesses, because they have to do it on their own terms. >> that's a great part of your story, and you want to blog that part of your story, because in today's digital world, people want to know the names behind the business. >> is and its you're seeing the generational change. >> really? >> yes. i am so happy to see it and they are aggressive. i don't know if that's the right word but considering the name of the book. >> are they confident? >> i think the issue is confidence and also having plans and having goals and putting the goals out there. telling someone you are going to build a million dollar business or do a $10 million business. people start to look at you differently when you express it, as oppose today saying, i have this little thing, could you help me as opposed to, this is what i want to accomplish and how would you suggest i do that or how did you do that as opposed to i'm seeing that. i'm seeing that confidence. in young women and also women who go through our program who finally get that their physical posture as well as what they say and their belief in their product or service. they have to speak about that. i think, similar to what you were saying about not underplaying their accomplishments. >> one of the things major study of men and women in business. they found that men are very comfortable branding themselves and talking about their accomplishments. what one social scientist called the male hubris effect. they often exaggerate their accomplishments. >> i tell them that if you really want to make a difference, you have to make a lot of money. >> right. >> it flips it around. because every woman who gets to a million, they talk about the foundation they want to set up and i look at them and say, please, i appreciate you want to be charitable. the most charitable thing you can do right now is create more jobs. >> growing your business. this is more of a gender story and more of an economic story. this is a job story which is why we invited you here today. thank you so much. author of, "you are a brand." thank you, ladies, appreciate it. from investing in women from investing in your home to get it ready to sell. how to make sure your for sale sign reads sold. ow#ç3 you're gonna want mr. fuzzyman even more now that we've discovered beneful playful life. with real, wholesome ingredients like beef, egg, and even oatmeal. extra protein for strong muscles. so you're ready for anything. you think you're getting spoiled. but it's so good for you, too. 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[ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. welcome to the spring selling season for real estate. drearily and overcast. it's raining foreclosures and that's driving down home prices. how do you sell your home in a buyer's market? it takes the right price, curb appeal and, of course, it's all about first impressions. >> now, when i drive up to this house, it's a great, classic american house, but it needs some attention. obviously, the garage is chipping and needs to be painted. scraping and putting a fresh coat of paint will help out with that. planting, cleaning out the leaves. getting a leaf blower and blowing all that out and cleaning it up with mulch and simple flour plantings will not cost a lot of money. the focal point of drawing you into the house is key. >> in real estate, it's what's on the outside. home and style designer and author of "no place like home" steven helps homeowners who wants to sell. he helps redesign the inside and outside in a buyer's market. >> people notice the things that are not quite as nice looking. maybe a plant that is dying or something. i would get a nice, new plant and flowering plant and stagger a few out here. >> reporter: plants won't break the bank, but homeowners think they need to make big remodeling. they project it at only 0.2%. but the returns on some home improvements are worth the investment. >> things like outdoor improvements. the front door, for example. buying and installing a fiberglass front door. it will cost you $1,000 and get back 60% when you sell. 60% of your money. make it a steel front door, you get back more, 102% of your money. a new garage door, you'll get back nearly 84% of your money and a new wood deck, that recoups about 73%. all good investments. if you can't afford any of these things. small, outside touches still matter. >> outside your house, my firstismpression driving up. you're in a neighborhood. people will see front lawn and you know, cleaning up the lawn is always key before a showing. >> mike aubrey is a licensed realtor and host of hgtv, it's curb appeal that is so important because you want somebody to be hooked right away. there are a lot of houses for sale, you have to make the first impression. >> absolutely. you get one shot to put your best foot forward. when you talk about a marketplace where there is as much inventory out there as there is right now, if you don't hook them in two seconds. they will be gone and they'll never be back. >> in a job interview, you have 15 seconds to make the first impression. in selling the house you have 15 seconds in selling a home. it's really that curb appeal. but, look, we feel like the sellers have have all these disadvantages, but, remember, buyers who are out there and people moving for their jobs and people who are trying to start their first household. is this a good time to be buying a house? mortgage rates, interest rates are still very low. >> i tell you what, christine. i think this is maybe the most incredible time to buy a property we've ever seen. if you can make it through the hoops of actually being able to qualify for the loan and you can get through the underwriting standards, which right now are so tenuous, maybe like we've never seen in the country, then it's a great time to buy because not only will you lock in a great interest rate, i think we have neared the bottom of the marketplace and you're going it be able to buy a house for what lower than anyone has in a while. >> we know from the recent numbers. selling your house has not been harder. existing home sales out from the national association of realtors. new homes being built, down 10.6% in april. home values are down 32% from their peak in may. what is your advice, if you're looking to sell with this kind of a forecast? >> you know what, i think that you absolutely have to realize what is going on in the marketplace. there is no room for fantasy any more. you have to realize where you sit, how you compare to the other properties that you're up against and have a realistic idea of what worth actually is. i mean, i've told you on your program more than once, you have to price it r