The Daily Signal - ‘If I Can Do It, You Can Do It,’ Business Owner and Navy Veteran Says

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

Clement Troutman, a Navy veteran and Tropical Smoothie Café franchisee in Maryland, says that “the free enterprise system is alive and well.” But, Troutman adds, “we need to really pursue that and go and chase those dreams.” “Because there are people waiting,” the restaurateur says. “The cures for cancer are out there, and, you know, we’re sitting on the sidelines thinking that we don’t have what it takes when we really do.” “So whatever it is you do, go ahead and go for your dreams because if I can do it, you can do it as well,” Troutman says. Troutman, a participant in a recent Heritage Foundation panel discussion and today’s guest on “The Daily Signal Podcast,” also discusses the panel’s topic: “Why Protecting Independence Is Vital for Opportunities and Flexibility.” (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) “When it comes to independence, this country was founded based on independence, right?” he says.  “We innately want … freedom, and free enterprise is alive and well, and it’s tied to that,” the founder of Troutman Alliance LLC adds. “Now, what does that mean? Well, [it’s] the freedom to choose, the freedom to live life on our own terms, to go where we want to go,”  On the podcast, Troutman discuss his businesses, his advice to those interested in opening their own business, and the Labor Department’s recently proposed overtime rule. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first thing I would say is to take action, make a decision. Now, once you know why you'll figure out how, most times people try to figure out how they're going to do something instead of why they want to do it. But the adage is, once you know why, you figure out all the hows along the way. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, October 13th. I'm Samantha Asheris. And that was Clement Troutman, founder of Troutman Alliance LLC, and owner of a tropical smoothie cafe. Today's episode kicks off a two-part series featuring Clement and Karen Anderson, who is the founder of freelancers against AB5. During a recent event here at the Heritage Foundation titled 21st Century Labor Policies to promote worker freedom, opportunity, and entrepreneurship,

Clement and Karen were members of a panel titled Why Protecting Independence is vital for opportunities and flexibility. Clement joins today's show to discuss his businesses, the panel's topic of why protecting independence is vital for opportunities and flexibility and more. We'll get to my conversation with Clement right after this. Hi, I'm John Carlo Canaparo. And I'm Zach Smith. And we host SCOTUS 101. It's a podcast where you'll get a breakdown of top cases in the highest court in the land. Hear from some of the greatest legal minds.

And of course, get a health. Healthy dose of Supreme Court trivia. Want to listen? Find us wherever you get your podcasts or just head to heritage.org slash podcasts. Case is submitted. Joining today's episode of The Daily Signal podcast is Clement Troutman. He is the founder of Troutman Alliance, LLC, an owner of a tropical smoothie cafe. Clementon was also recently on a panel here at the Heritage Foundation for an event titled 21st Century Labor policies to promote worker freedom, opportunity, and entrepreneurship.

Clement, thanks so much for joining us today. Well, it's totally an honor, Sam, Anthony. I'm glad to be with you here. So first and foremost, tell us a little bit about yourself and your businesses. Wow, wonderful. Hey, again, I'm totally honored, Sam, that you have me here. I'm Samantha. You know, sometimes I hear the word Sam.

I'm not sure if that was appropriate or not, but just want to see Samantha. I can be sure get it right. But yeah, so the short version of the story, you know, retired Navy. I was born in Detroit, Michigan. My family was from Georgia, but the big migration north were job opportunities in the 50s. My siblings and I were born there. Ended up back in Georgia, you know, at the age of 13. And, you know, I was afraid of the South, if you will, you know, at first.

But adaptive relatively quickly played sports and athletics and football and things of that. And I thought I was going to the NFL, you know, in football, ended up getting injured. And a recruiter had my name in mind and ended up in the United States Navy. And I thought I was going just for a season or two, a couple of years, to save up money for school. Ended up making it a career. And along the way, you know, ended up getting married to my wife with Jackie of 33 years now.

And we have, you know, two kids. And let's see, after that, after I retired from the Navy, I became a contractor in the field of technology and cybersecurity, doing that with a great consulting firm. And my daughter was at Howard University. And she was studying in a school of business about the smoothie industry, you know. And so she was telling me about it. And I just happened to be coming from a meeting here. We're in Maryland, by the way. you live in Oddington, Maryland.

But anyway, I'm coming from a meeting, and my colleague goes, hey, you've ever been to a tropical smoothie cafe? I said, no, I never heard of it. You know, so we ended up stopping out, I had a smoothie and a wrap. Then I ended up resigning from corporate America, you know, to sell smoothies, you know. And that's a short version, you know. And the Tropa Alliance was founded with that in mind to help others and by helping ourselves and being committed to giving people opportunity.

and the healthier way of life as well. So we found the Troulement Alliance and connected with Tropical Smoothie Cafe Corporate and the Abruits Four Franchise and we got started, if you will, back in 2017 and with no experience and was forced enough to hit the top of the food chain in that arena, you know,

and that was a humbling experience. So we saw us straight to the top as this number one producing Tropical Smoothie Cafe located in Capitol Heights, Maryland. And after that, I took a deep breath, and goes, what just happened? You know, so that was the, that's a short version. That's great.

I wanted to ask you, before we talk more about the event itself and the panel that you were on, I wanted to just ask you, you know, your advice for someone who maybe wants to open their own business and sort of the challenges, the ups and downs that you faced with opening a Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Okay. So, thank you. That's a wonderful, wonderful lead-in question. if you will. The answer is do it. You know, the answer is to to trust your gut feeling. You know, a lot of times we have ideas and thoughts of doing things. We have these dreams in our hearts.

As a matter of fact, I've written a book as well entitled Dreams Never Die, you know, and I'll talk about the importance of these feelings we have, you know, that we kind of ignore but they never go away sort of thing. Well, they're really real. They're visions we have in our heart, and we kind of put them on the back burner, you know, because they may not have. appear popular, we don't think we're qualified. Well, at the end of the day, the first thing I would say is that you can do it, trust yourself more. You know, I've found that we tend to think that others have more ability than we do ourselves, and it's just not so. We're very good of what we do. Matter of fact, Sam, you know, to be where you are right now, you had to learn and overcome

some things to be as good as you are, right? And John and his role, you know, for setting up this wonderful medium, you know, we had to learn, right? You know, so, but we tend to forget those things where we try something new. You know, our minds are pretty much conditioned to think that, since it's unfamiliar, that to be careful. And that's by design. The subconscious mind is designed that way to be on the defensive, you know, fight or flight, right? Emotions. But really, what is really pointing to the evidence of an unknown, a new experience, if you will. It's not necessarily fear, right? But once we take that step, once we start doing it, that's when the learning starts.

So the first thing I would say is to take action, make a decision. Now, once you know why, you'll figure out how. Most times people try to figure out how they're going to do something instead of why they want to do it. But the adage is, once you know why, you figure out all the house along the way, whether it's looking for a startup capital, experience, or the right people. You know, those things come, if you will, after the fact, right, after the decision piece. And sadly, most people try to figure those pieces out before making a decision, and they end up not making it decision. Now, when it comes to Tropical Smoothie Cafe, that's what I had to hang my hat when, if you will, that belief, you know, and call faith, if you will. But I think it's even stronger than that.

I think once you have a decision, a heartfelt decision, if you will, in your heart, you're willing to pay the full price for what you want. You know, in other words, Jackie and I, you know, we've been married again 33 years. And when you have things in the heart, you know, matters of the heart, it don't make sense, right? Dreams don't make sense. But you will take action if it's a strong enough belief. So when I started dating Jackie, we were both working our jobs. And we would be up at 3 a.m. in the morning, and the conversation would go something like this.

So what are you doing right now? And she goes nothing. And I would say, and she would ask me, what are you doing? I'll say nothing. And there's 3 am in the morning. We both have to work in the morning, right? It makes no sense. But it doesn't matter when it's a matter of the heart, right? So if we really listen to what we feel and take action on it, then the learning process starts. You know, and that comes from the why. You know, whether it comes. to startup capital experiences I mentioned earlier, the right people, the location, all those things that we think about when it comes to a venture, the perfect business plan. I don't think that's such things as a perfect business plan, but I think you can have ideas that you can jot down where you're going, and then you can perfect them along the way. And I think that's the key to

success in business and what we were able to leverage when we started our tropical smoothie journey. You know, it was a matter of fact, Jackie wasn't, she wasn't even on board. You know, she was afraid. actually, you know. And within that, you know, and that's, it's kind of like if you're married, that has a place too. As a saying goes, every kite needs a tail. I'm the kite, Jackie's the tail. You know, she keeps me steady. But at the end of the day, you know, she just needed to believe strongly enough that I believe, you know, and we were willing to do whatever it takes to chase her dreams, if you will. And that's where I was at that point of my life. Absolutely. I wanted to shift a little bit and discuss further.

the panel that you were on here while you're at the Heritage Foundation, the title of the panel was why protecting independence is vital for opportunities and flexibility. Based on your experience as a business owner and just going along with the name of the panel, why is protecting independence vital for opportunities and flexibility? When it comes to independence, you know, this country was founded based on independence, right? You know, we in aately want to, freedom, you know, and free enterprise is alive and well, and it's tied to that. You know, now, what does that mean? Well, the freedom to choose, the freedom to live life on our own terms, the good way we want to go, we want to go. There's a reason why, you know,

we have more immigrants from other countries than any place on earth, while we have to consider putting up walls, if you will, to keep people out, not to keep them in. You know, my 24 years in the Navy was to preserve those freedoms, you know, that are so necessary. And our servicemen and women continue to this very moment. You know, as I mentioned, well, I had mentioned to another gentleman that I met a gentleman from Pakistan. And he told me that on certain, uncertain terms, America is the heartbeat of the world, you know, and it has to make it. The whole world follows America. You know, so that innate opportunity in America is like no other place on earth.

I've had the opportunity to live in Spain as well as in Japan and look at back at America from afar and travel the world. You know, and truly there's no place like home, as they say, right? You know, so when it comes to independence, when it comes to opportunity, now that doesn't mean that it's easy. It doesn't mean that, you know, it doesn't take sacrifice, but we're entitled to the opportunity for that independence. You know, let's just say the example I use sometimes is, let's just say I'm flying pre, this is pre-Uber, right? If I'm flying to, I don't know, see Atlanta, and it's pre-Uber, and I get to Atlanta and I get a rent-a-car, you know, and then I do what I'm going to do in Atlanta, then I fly back to Baltimore, you know, I turn the rent-a-car end, if you will, right, then I catch my flight. Now, notice, when I turn the rental car in, I may take my trash and, you know, get that together, Samantha, you know, but what I don't do is I don't vacuum it, I don't wash it, and I don't wax it. And the reason being that it's not mine, you know, there's a place for ownership, right, that it has value.

It's emotional. We're tied to it. You know, when you give an individual an opportunity to be their own business owner and look at the mirror and see the boss, you know, they're productive. They don't take a lunch break. We're more productive when we're doing it for things that we believe and care about. You know, not that we don't care about our jobs as professionals, but when you own a business, a business owner doesn't take a lunch break, a coffee break. They work until the job is done.

You know, we don't count the hours, right? So we're more productive, the more independent we are in that right. You know, the more independent we are, the more we can help other people, the more revenue we can create, a more job opportunities for others. you know, independence is tied to that, right, and flexibility as well. You know, flexibility to serve in different capacities. If we can help enough people, help themselves, then we have the flexibility to do like what we're doing today, the flexibility to be on a cast like this, right? On a, you know, on a network and share our stories and make everyone else even more productive. So our productivity,

if you will, is tied to a place of independence. Our financial independence, you know, personal independence, you know, our economic freedoms are, you know, correlated. They're tied together. You know, and the more economic freedoms we can exercise, the more personal freedoms we can exercise. You know, so when it comes to our way of life in America, the foundation is based on free enterprise and the opportunity, if you will, to pursue it, you see? And so that's what we see as when it comes to independence and flexibility, been in business for yourself, and the freedom. enterprise system, it's alive and well, and it'll never go away as long as we understand those core elements. People work really, really hard and are very productive when they know when it comes

to creating a legacy for tomorrow, all those things. It's likewise having more revenue than you need or more resources to help the needy. That comes from it as well. So there's so many advantages, if you will, we can tap into that dream, if you will, that can lead to that, that, you know, pursue that dream and see it all the way through, if you will, you know, and amazing how many more lives we can touch in the process. As the saying goes, you know, true success is how many people are better off because you live. And so in the free enterprise framework and our independence, we can touch more lives and people can have a better quality of life for all. Something else I wanted to ask you about that was brought up during the panel's discussion

was a proposed overtime role that the Labor Department introduced in all. Now, according to the Labor Department's website, the proposed rule would guarantee overtime pay for most salaried workers earning less than $1,059 per week, about $55,000 per year. The joint employer rule was also brought up during the panel. I know you discussed this during the event, but for our listeners who either weren't able to attend in person or online, can you first walk us through how this proposed Labor Department rule on overtime could impact you and your business? It's really something. You know, so when it comes to hourly workers versus salaried, you know, in the salary construct, you know, we give our employees an opportunity to earn a certain rate of pay, if you will,

for a certain set amount of hours. In that, you know, we can plan, if you will, productivity. and what we need to accomplish in our businesses. But at the same time, allow the employees the flexibility to look out for unknowns. Like, let's just say my store manager, Randy Blaine, you know, she's a single mom, too. And, you know, in our, you know, operational environment, it can get complex sometimes. But at the same time, we understand that she needs flexibility. You know, so if she gets a call from, say, the school that, you know, her child is sick or something,

like then it has to leave. You know, she has the flexibility to go see about her family, if you will, you know, and still be entitled to her certain agreed upon salary of pay without impacting her financially. Okay, so that's the one side. The other side, from the other way, if we go to what we're talking in terms of the overtime rule, you know, then for a business owner, I may have to look at you know, making Randy, you know, hourly earner, if you will.

That means every time she has to go take care of a family member, you know, she's not going to get her hours, right? That's the first thing, you know, so it's going to affect her financially as an employee, right? But secondly, you know, if, you know, when it comes to the impact on our business, you know, if Randy meets her 40-hour week criteria, if you will, and I need her to stay longer, because let's just say for security reasons, I may have a senior member, two senior members on duty at the same time. But if she's maxed out at 40 hours, going beyond that, I got to pay her say time and a half, overtime pay. Well, that could be very costly for my business.

I may have to go with someone who's less qualified to do those duties. that really requires someone more experience, if you will, which could compromise, you know, the security of my business or my staff, if you will, you know, or affect them financially. So it really puts us in a compromised position when we need that expertise, if you will, you know, and affects our ability to have the flexibility we need on both sides, you know, from the sake of the business, as well as for them having the flexibility as the employees. So both are impacted adversely. And then the second part of that that I wanted to ask you about was the joint employer rule.

Same idea here. How could the joint employer rule potentially impact you in your business? Well, again, this goes back to the whole intent of being in business. That's a small business owner, right? Particularly, you know, and we speak on this, particularly in the franchising realm, which Tropical smoothie cafe is a franchise, right? Business owners, we go into business because, Samantha, because we have dreams. we have goals and envisions of tomorrow for our children, grandchildren, or just for legacy

purposes or to make a difference in our lives, you know, and the franchise amount in particular allows us an opportunity to do that, pursue that. And for instance, you know, I, you know, growing up in the projects, if you go to Tendell Heights, you know, I always wanted to be in business for myself, but I didn't know how, right? But my military background allowed, afforded me an opportunity to have a skill set, if you will, the hinged on systems and processes and procedures that fit perfectly with a franchising model of business. So for a veteran like myself, you know,

to come out of the Navy as a serving our country, you know, to have an opportunity to go into business into a franchise, it was a totally win-win opportunity force, you know, and we've been, again, had been fortunate to be successful in that endeavor. And, you know, and many veterans like myself have had that same opportunity, you know. And we go out and we church a lot of lives in the process, you know, in our communities. We're deeply involved in every aspect of, you know, developing tomorrow's leaders.

As I mentioned earlier, into one panel, that tomorrow's leaders come through our cafes and small businesses on the way to where they're going, you know. And we have them for a season, if you will. Gen Z and you name it, they all come through. So we're totally involved and committed to keeping that going. Now, with the joint employer rule, when a member joins our team, they're not hired by Tropical Smoothie Cafe. They're employed by the Troutman Alliance LLC, you know. And then that, you know, we provide their needs, you know, their benefits, whether it be 401K, and we sit down and see what their goals are. And, you know, and we take that on consideration along with pay and benefit.

all fall into the Troutman Alliance LLC. You see? Now, what the joint employer rules proposing is that those responsibilities get elevated to the franchisor level versus to the franchisee or the owners. That first and foremost would not benefit the employees themselves, quite frankly, because the employers really wouldn't know exactly who they are, right, and what their needs are. I just spoke with one of my assistant managers just this morning. You know, we're talking about her goals and dreams and things that she wants to pursue. And employers do that, if you will.

And maybe not in the corporate setting as much, but in the small business sector, I know that small business owners are deeply connected to their staff, you know, and want them succeed, obviously, because when they succeed, we succeed. You see, you know, but the other thing is that the joint employer proposal truly takes away the incentive to be in business. You know, I left corporate America, as I mentioned earlier, you know, because I want to be my own boss, not to be a mid-level manager. There's nothing against men a mid-level manager, but that's not what I signed up for. So, in essence, the whole framework of, you know, the proposal would. would, you know, take away the incentive for us to be business owners, you know,

and essentially to be managers, you know. And so I think it would really be a devastating blow to the entire country quite frankly because, you know, franchising and small businesses are totally intertwined in the fabric of America. And I think the statistics show that small businesses are the number one of employers, if you will, of jobs in America, right? And a lot of that, I don't know the exact numbers, but I'm quite sure a whole lot of that flows through the, you know, the franchising model of business. Well, Clement, thank you so much for joining us today. Just before we go, any final thoughts?

Yes, thank you for that opportunity. Well, first of all, thank you and the folks at the, you know, the Heritage Foundation and the great work you do for, you know, keeping these discussions going and relevant, you know, is so refined. and inspiring to know that you guys are, you know, doing heavy lifting behind the scenes and, you know, to keeping everything engaged to preserve our freedoms, you know. And we as speaking for all small business owners and employers, thank you for that. You know, but we definitely need to support of everyone out there understanding that the intent of, you know, some of these initiatives, if you will, the adverse implications they can mean to the people that we serve every day

and the communities we serve in America as a whole. But the free enterprise system is alive and well, as I mentioned earlier. And we need to really pursue that and go and chase those dreams, man. And, you know, because there are people waiting. The cures the cancer out there.

And, you know, and we're sitting on the sidelines thinking that we don't have what it takes when we really do. You know, so whatever it is you do, go ahead and go for your dreams. Because if I can do it, you can do it as well. Well, great. Thank you so much Clement Troutman for joining us today. It was such a pleasure to have you on. We'd love to have you back on in the future.

Thank you so much for joining us. It's been totally a pleasure, Samantha. Thank you as well. And that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to my interview with Clement Troutman and make sure you tune back in on Monday morning for my interview with Karen Anderson. If you haven't had the chance, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal. wherever you get your podcasts and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read and appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great day and we'll be back with you all this afternoon for top news. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers

are Rob Louie and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.