use Net::FTPSSL;

my $ftps = Net::FTPSSL->new(
    'site.uat.mysite.com',
    Encryption             => EXP_CRYPT,
    Debug                  => 1,
    DebugLogFile           => "myLog.txt",
    Port                   => 5041,
    useSSL                 => 0,
    SSL_Client_Certificate => {
        SSL_cert_file => '/path/to/cert_file.pem',
        SSL_passwd_cb => sub { return 'pa$$w0rd' },
        SSL_version   => 'TLSv12',
    },
    Croak => 1
);

$ftps->trapWarn();    # Only call if opening a CPAN bug report.

$ftps->login( 'USERNAME', 'PASSWORD' );


$ftps->put( "test.txt", "test1.txt" );
foreach ( $ftps->list() ) {
    print "$_\n";
}

$ftps->get("test1.txt");

$ftps->quit();
[download]

i was able to force the connection i needed. While it's suggested to not do this.

Can you explain what you mean by this? I don't see that you are forcing anything. Encryption is EXP_CRYPT by default so that line does nothing different. useSSL is disabled by default so setting it to 0 does nothing different. The use of the trapWarn method just causes warnings to go to the DebugLogFile (since you defined one and set Debug to 1).