'I had great legs!' Barbara Corcoran says she's used the 'dumb blonde card' and sex appeal to win in business - and she still recommends it
- Barbara Corcoran is a real-estate mogul and an investor on the ABC series "Shark Tank."
- She says she's played the "dumb blonde" card and used her own sex appeal to get her way in business.
- Even today, post Harvey Weinstein accusations, Corcoran says the same strategies can give women an advantage.
Barbara Corcoran is successful, but she has some controversial advice for others who want to get ahead.
Corcoran is a real-estate mogul and an investor on the ABC series "Shark Tank." In 2001, she sold her company, The Corcoran Group, for $66 million.
On an episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It," Corcoran told US editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell some strategies she used to make it in a male-dominated industry (real estate). Specifically, she played the "dumb blonde" card - or the "dumb anything" card.
Because when you do, "people underestimate you," Corcoran said.
She continued: "I wore flashy bright-colored suits, short skirts, I had great legs. That was my best asset. I flaunted them, no doubt about it."
In 2016, Corcoran told Inc. magazine that she used flattery and flirtation to get her way whenever a man talked down to her. She would say things like, "That's brilliant! I never would have thought of that! How do you think such thoughts?" or tell the man how handsome he was.
Then she'd pounce.
"I spoke louder and stood up straighter," Corcoran told Inc. "I prepared better. I'd have everything ready. I would do whatever I had to do to prove that he had no right to think I was less than him."
Corcoran told Business Insider she'd still use the same strategy today, even in a #MeToo world. It's about marketing, she said - specifically, playing up what makes you memorable.
"Of course," she replied, when asked if those strategies would be smart to use today. "The great advantage I had - and still have, because I travel mostly in a man's world still - is just by being a woman," she said. "I stand apart from the pack. I never saw it as a liability. I saw that as an advantage. Like, 'Look, I'm the only girl in the room.' They might not remember my name but they'll say, 'The girl in the room,' where they wouldn't say, 'One of the 50 boys in a room.' Right? So no, I think you just have to play up whatever you can to get positive attention, because attention brings business."