@fuzzychef I think it’s different depending on your platform. For example on mobile (I use Metatext) it provides a follow button in everyone’s profile which works seamlessly, regardless of instance.
In a web browser, it’s similar but more kludge-y; opens a pop-up window with some prompts for following that person. Otherwise just pasting a persons url in the search field (e.g. https://fosstodon.org/@NealEffinEss) which seems like sub-optimal UX ?
If you click on someone's profile and then click on "following", it should show you some of the people they follow, unless they've chosen to hide follows in their Edit Profile menu.